The rose cross school for alternative magicks
by Sugar Plum Freaking Princess
Summary: HP x-over, When the wizard Voldemort and the Millennium Earl combine forces the exorcists of the black order are forced to go under cover during a large wizard tournament, Will they be able to survive the tasks ahead or fall short of the plate?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or D grey man

Thanks to CrimsonKitsune333 for beta-ing

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It was natural for any town to have seen a few strange things over an extended period of time. The unexpected just have a way of happening, and Little Hangleton was no exception. In fact if you asked anyone in their small village they would probably tell you that they had had more than their fair share.

It had all started with the Riddle house. 50 years ago it was the finest building around for miles and the family that owned the fine building truly matched. The Riddles, while glamours and elegant were a snobbish elderly couple that lived in their giant home with their adult son Tom. They were the stereotypical rich family, looking down upon everyone else in the small town, not bothering to mingle themselves with any of the other villagers.

When the Riddles were murdered, no one within the town shed a single tear. In fact the only thing that marked the change was the gossip that ran around town like wild fire.

Doctors were of course called in and they gave a report that had startled everyone. The only cause of death that even the, most trained of professionals could supply was that every function in the body for no apparent reason had just simultaneously shut down. Other then that, the had Riddles had been perfectly healthy. The Little Hangleton was baffled, and curious to the extreme. Suspects where called in and out, the Riddle's gardener being the town's favourite. But eventually all charges where drooped and the Riddle's were put to rest.

Now the house was deserted and all of its glory was lost to time. The Riddle Manor sifted owners at an alarming rate. No one willing to stay within those walls for very long. The current owner kept it only for tax purposes, or so he said.

The only people to enter the property these days where kids, acting on practical jokes to try and brake in and harass the old gardner, who was still payed to keep the grounds clean.

That is why, if anyone was to walk down the smooth streets of Little Hangleton on this cold summer night, they would be astounded to see two people pushing heading towards the old twisted metal gate that marked the entrance to the Riddle Manor.

Road giggled from her perch from atop the Millennium Earl's shoulders, twirling his pumpkin-headed umbrella as she went. With no care for the more than likely sleeping people around her, Road laughed. The light hearted sound even louder as the sound of the animated umbrella's screams as they split through the crisp night air.

"Relo! Road-sama Stop! RELO!"

Road giggled again as she started to twirl the Pumpkin headed umbrella, faster and faster until it 'slipped' from her fingers and was sent flying from the momentum. Lucky for Relo however, the Earl had reached up at the last moment to grab the poor thing.

"Reeellllllllloooooooo…"

"Road, you should be nicer to our little friend here," the Earl chuckled good-naturedly, passing the umbrella back up to Road who ran a hand through her bright blue hair in an attempt to look sheepish, but failed miserably. "But Earl-sama, it's so much fun!"

"Alright alright, try not to hurt him… too badly."

"YAY!"

Road's face went serious for a second as she looked up at the run down mansion that was their location. "Earl-sama what are we doing here?" She asked, curiosity evident in her voice.

"We're looking into a new broker," The earl replied, doing a little skip as he turned around the corner.

"Oh… So why am I here?"Road continued, trying to at least get a little information from him before they got there, because the Earl was being just as annoyingly cryptic as usual.

"Because I figured that you'll enjoy it?"

"Is that it?" Road's tone was sarcastic as she stretched out her long legs, staring at the purple and blue striped tights that encased them. It was obvious that the preteen Noah did not agree with the Millennium Earls statement, and her tone edged on a further explanation.

"That and if things don't quite go the way we want, then you can play your little games with them."

Road's face brightened instantly as she fiddled with the candles on the top of the Earl's hat. Now there was a reason for her to go and meet this broker. Road hadn't had a good play time with anyone since Allen's red-head friend… Bookman jr? He had been fun to play with, even gave Road a reason to kill Allen right before the red head's eyes. Even now the memory of the Bookman Jr's stricken face danced gloriously within Road's memory.

"As glad as I am that you are enjoying yourself my sweet could you please knock on the door for me?" The Earl asked politely as he looked over the brim of his round glasses at the imposing wooden door that stood before them.

Road reached out to put her hand to the door only to find that it had made contact with air when the door opened on its own, causing her to sigh in dismay. "Goodness me, an automatically opening door, is that supposed to be scary? Please tell me this guy is better than this, Earl-sama? Your last several Broker's have been sooooo boring" Road wined in the Millenium Earls ear, a pout on her thin features.

The Earl Laughed, reaching a gloved hand up to Road's grey lip and tugged on the extended bottom one. "No, I promise this one will be better than the others. He has a lovely track record from what I hear. Perfect for our needs."

They walked through the decaying house, the earl floating above the ground as they continued on their way to the room at the end of the hall, the only room with light. Road's sharp eyes scanned everything, taking in every minute detail and her pout grew any larger. Could this man, however he was be any more of a cliche. Cobwebs everywhere, the chandelier on the roof covered in dust. The haunted house motif was definitely over done.

"Hello, Earl of the Millennium," A courteous voice came from the centre of the room. The voice was flat-sounding, yet surprisingly shrill as it rang through the room that they had walked through. It almost sounded more reptilian than human.

"Hello Lord Voldemort" The Earl replied cheerily as Road hopped down lightly from his shoulders and onto Relo so she floated a few feet in the air. She smiled in her own cute but evil way at Voldemort's lackey Wormtail, causing him to shake softly. Road's smile grew as she tasted the fear that literally rolled off the portly little man.

"So have you thought over my offer?" The Millenium Earl asked, tillting his head to the side in a quizzical manner. Those gloved white hands extended, allowing him to lean his entire weight onto his cane, waiting.

"Yes I have"

From what Road had gathered it seemed like this Voldemort person was all about manners and pride (The 2 top things that made a person an absolute bore.)It struck Road as odd however that this entire conversation was being held to the mans back. Normally one would have the decencing to at least look to whom they were speaking to. It didn't seem to phase the Earl however, and Road was fine with that.

The Earl smiled, his mouth curving upwards even more so then normal at the thought of getting a new broker and all the new Akuma's he could have as a result. "Well?" He asked merrily. Breaking the unearthly silence that was filling the air. Voldemort was not the most social of people, but the Earl was not going to let his people go to waste here.

"Let me just see if I fully understand first. You're willing to give me everything I need to execute my plan and in return all I have to do is give you the location of a highly populated place so you can make some more of these Akuma objects of yours?"

"That's right!"

"Well then, as much as I do dislike working with other people I have to admit this seems to be a fairly satisfactory deal. I accept. But just so we are clear, if you do anything to interfere with the end results of this plan, I will not hesitate to kill you."

The earl just laughed at the threat as Road stood up causing poor Relo to whine under her, as her weight suddenly shifted. She raised her hand slightly to create the door to her realm allowing the Earl to walk through it before hopping off Relo and preparing to walk through herself. Pausing, Road turned to face the chair and this Wormtail person, she allowed her human mask to disappear shifting her appearance to that of her Noah form.

"The Earl will contact you when everything is set, until then I do not recommend doing something idiotic, such as trying to run away. Its been so long since I have gotten to play with anyone, maybe you will be my knew playmates" Road said, gently running her skeletal finger across Wormtails's cheek,before turning back into a normal preteen, a sweet smile on her face as she skipped through her giant door. At the same time, a 14 year old boy lurched from his bed with a start, his heart still pounding in his chest from what he had just seen.

/////

It was nearly dawn, Harry noticed as he stared across his cramped bedroom to the window that faced the Dursley's back yard. It was obvious that he wasn't going to be getting anymore sleep that night, so there wasn't really a point in trying.

Getting up from his bed, Harry stepped over to his wardrobe, pulling open the door to look at the mirror inside. There was nothing out of the ordinary about his appearance, well if you could call his wild black hair, bright green eyes and a lightning bolt shaped scar on your forehead normal. Harry ran a finger over the scar; it still stung but not nearly as much as before. It had hurt so much, almost as if someone had taken white hot clamps to it and had tried to pull it apart.

'It's a warning' Harry thought staring at the scar 'Telling me I should not just pass this off as a nightmare, oh lucky me…'

"I guess I should write to Dumbledore about this," he muttered under his breath, sitting down at his rickety old desk reaching for a quill, some parchment and some ink to write a letter to both his head master and his god father Sirius, whom Harry figured would probably enjoy being kept up to date about this kind of thing.

He soon sealed the letters, noting with mild interest that the letter to Sirius was at least twice as long as the one to Professor Dumbledore. It was sort of amusing, come to think of it, that Harry had bonded so well with the his godfather in such a short period of time.

'Oh well, no time to worry about that now' he thought to himself as he walked over to his snowy owl, Hedwig. The owl hopped on to his arm as Harry stood slowly, heading towards the open window and giving her a little push as she spread her wings to fly into the newly light.

"Be careful' Harry said softly as she flew away from number 4. He turned towards the bedroom door, hearing the tell-tale signs that his aunt and uncle were awake, meaning that in five minutes or so, Aunt Petunia was probably going to start rapping on his door telling him to get his lazy, freeloading ass downstairs, and yet not caring that her own son probably wouldn't make his first appearance until at least one o'clock that afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

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An emergency meeting for the exorcist's of the black order was never a good thing. But when Komui had the guts to call a meeting just as the light of dawn appeared in the sky, it was obvious that something very major was going to or was already happening. Not the thing anyone wanted to hear first thing in the morning.

"Komui, what the hell is so important that you felt the need to call a meeting at this god damned hour!" Kanda seethed as he stomped through the threshold of Komui's by no means organized office, gracefully steeping over top of the sea of papers that littered the floor.

"Kanda would it kill you to be polite!" Now it was Allen's turn to storm into the office, looking as if he had just rolled out of bed, hair standing up in every which way, his normal red tie hanging loosely around his neck and Timcampy draped still asleep across his shoulders.

Kanda turned back glaring sharply at the younger exorcist who's expression clearly showed that his sentiments for the blue haired swordsman where not to different than Kanda's for him.

"Yes I think it would bean sprout",

"Don't call me bean sprout, the name is Allen, A.L.L.E.N I'm sure it's not that hard to remember Yuu-chan"

"What did you just call me?"

The air in the room seemed to sizzle as the two people became drawn into there normal feud, lightening seaming to form between their heads, the papers surrounding them starting to smoke and burn around the edges. It was possible to cut the tension with a knife but Lavi found a slightly more interesting way to break it. Creeping up behind them as quiet as he could while avoiding the flames that where spontaneously combusting around the feuding exorcists he pushed Allen in the back causing the smaller boy to stumble, and fall face down onto the couch.

Lenalee giggled as she walked in the door arm linked with Miranda, Krory walking in behind them stifling a yawn with his hand.

"What was that for?" Allen asked in a disgruntled voice rolling to sit-up on the couch checking to make sure Timcampy was still asleep and not half way across the room as Lavi plopped down beside him. "You where blocking the door." He said simply, shrugging his shoulders and reached for the mug of coffee on the table in front of him.

"Well Big Brother?" Lenalee asked as they all settled in the large room being careful to avoid any piles of papers that could contain some horrible, deforming invention of the science department hidden in its depths.

Komui looked up at his ragtag group of exorcists, his expression clearly stating what they had thought earlier, this was not just a quick meeting to ask how things were. Komui sighed as he pushed his glasses a little farther onto his nose before looking everyone in the eye as best he could. "We have a new mission" he began in a serious voice instantly gaining everyone's attention.

"The letter came from central a few hours ago, apparently a secret organization from the inside of England is asking for protection of one of their schools..." "Protection? Not a hope in hell, do I look like a freaking body guard to you?" Kanda growled from his position in the back corner of the office glaring holes into Komui. "I'm well aware of that Kanda, trust me when I say that I am about as pleased about this as you are. These orders came from central however so we are not allowed to pass them off as much as we want to."

Allen raised an eyebrow at this. "So what is so important that central would actually take the exorcists away from gathering all the innocence? I was under the impression that was all that was important in this world, to them anyway." He asked his good-natured mood rapidly disappearing into a mask of polite, cold indifference, an expression that was becoming increasingly normal for Allen if Central was even mentioned these days.

"That Allen is my point exactly! You see this organization is very old and very, very powerful, filled with people hidden just about everywhere, people that... for the most part, just blend in with normal humans. These people are called Wizards."

Kanda snorted, "Wizards" he said darkly "Bastard, You woke me up to tell me about a fairy tale?" It was obvious to everyone that he was less pleased about his information then anything that had happened this morning, even the degrading of his status from an exorcist to a bodyguard. "Komui's telling the truth Kanda" Lavi said thoughtfully tapping his finger to his chin. "What do you mean Lavi?" Miranda asked politely having not said a single word all morning. "I remember Panda once telling me that all around the world there a group of magick wielders calling themselves wizards. These wizards it appeared specialized in wand magic, which is far different from any of the magick we have seen before."

Komui nodded. "True enough Lavi, and that's who has hired us, apparently the earl has found a new broker, someone who these 'wizards' greatly fear. The first target was at an international wizarding-sporting event. Luckily no one was killed but it took nearly 100 of these wizards to take down the single level one Akuma and many where injured in the process. Now from what I understand the target has sifted to Hogwarts School of witchcraft and Wizardry, and that is where we will be going."

"But Komui, you know just as well as I do that the exorcist are not welcomed in their society, something about being cold hearted murders, the spawn of Satan or whatever." Everyone was startled by the serious undertone in Lavi's voice, the jr. Bookman was almost never this serious preferring to keep a goofy smile on his face even when he didn't mean it. Komui sighed again taking a long sip of the coffee Lenalee had pressed into his hands. "I know, but there government system has offered to make an expression as long as we stick to their rules during the missions. You are not to attack an Akuma unless it is in its true form, or at the very least don't get caught doing so by anyone who could report you. I can also not stress enough the importance of not revelling your true identity as an Exorcist to anyone unless they take the first step into that conversation. I don't think it will be too much of a problem however; most of these wizards have only

"During this mission we will be going undercover as a neighbouring school, who will be participating in a multi school tournament, This will given you the ability to monitor the school grounds as best you can even though one of you will be participating in the tournament."

"Big brother?"

"Yes Lenalee?"

"How many of us will have to go to this school? We can't all go."

"Well you, Allen, Lavi and Kanda are all going, as well as myself to make sure no questionable boys come and swoop down on my precious sister. Miranda, Krory if you two don't mind I was hoping that you continue work here at the order, since you both are a little to old to pass as students and two young to pass as teachers. The arc will be set up between Hogwarts and the order so staying connected won't be an issue"

Miranda and Krory nodded "Don't worry Komui we'll take care of things here." Miranda said as Krory placed a hand on her shoulder, "Most assuredly"

Komui clasped his hands together, "Excellent! Allen when do you think you can get the Arc set up by?"

"In a couple of minutes, but I will need to know the exact location of where to connect to or the doorway will end up just about anywhere" Allen replayed as he sat up from the couch stretching slightly. "We already thought of that!' Komui said excitedly as he reached into his breast pocket to revel a picture of a tiled roof in front of a distinct background of a somehow evil looking willow tree facing over a large lake that had a large tentacle poking out of it. "We figured that as long as you had the imagine in your head you could create a doorway. So if you are supplied with a detailed enough photo of the location the door should appear! At least in theory…"

Allen nodded as he took the picture from Komui, studding it intently before placing it into the pouch hanging off his belt. "When do you want it set up by?"

"We need to be there at about seven for our dramatic entrance with the rest of the schools but to make sure that everything goes according to plan it should probably be ready to go and connected at about five? Yes five sounds good. Don't any of you worry about packing, since the arc is going to be connected the whole time so we will be able to return to the Order whenever needed."

"Yes Komui!"

"Good, so we will leave just as soon as Allen here visits Jerry to satisfy that bottomless pit that he calls a stomach. It would be truly embarrassing for him to collapse in hunger as soon as we get there."

"Hey I'm not that bad!" Allen cried, but it seemed that his efforts in defending his almost limitless hunger proved futile, as his stomach chose that exact moment to make its presence known in a roar that threatened to wake everyone inside the Black Order. Including Timcampy who fell of Allen's shoulder in a disgruntled heap catching him self in mid fall to flap his wings in front of Allen's face poking the exorcist just under his eyes with tiny paws.

"Alright, alright I'm sorry Timcampy, I didn't mean to wake you up! Komui are we done here, I think Timcampy will hurt me if I don't feed both him and myself!" Lavi laughed as he reached over to ruffle Allen's already messed hair. "Oh poor bean sprout afraid of his 'iitle 'olem.

"Yes Lavi, I am, and for good reason. Master has a pretty nasty sense of humour"

"Oh and what's that... HOLY MOTHER OF...." Lavi nearly jumped out of his skin as Timcampy turned his attention from trying to get Allen to go and receive some food to flying in front Lavi's face and cracking a large smile from his nearly invisible mouth. This revealed a double row of razor sharp teeth that nearly threatened to overwhelm the golden Golems face.

"See my point? Like I said, Master has a pretty nasty sense of humour giving something so cute such an evil attribute. Timcampy is the only Golem that I know of that can do that" Allen said as Timcampy fluttered at the door his face back to normal as he pointed out the door, towards the kitchen. It was all Lavi could do to nod, his face a sickly pale colour, which with his bright red hair and black clothes made him look like a corpse. "I'm glad you under stand and don't call me bean sprout! Komui?"

"Yes Allen we are done."

Allen smiled before vaulting the back of the couch and running for the door, Timcampy fluttering behind him doing a back flip in midair to show his enthusiasm, as much as a little gold ball with wings could at least.

Still laughing Lenalee and Lavi followed Allen out the door watching with a bemused expression as he ran full sprint down the hallway to see if Jerry was awake enough to serve him a satisfactory breakfast.

"He never changes does he? Lavi asked as they walked down the hallway to the cafeteria. "No and I pray he never does."

/////

Allen sighed happily as he and Lenalee walked through the quiet streets that made up the inside of the arc. It was always so quiet there, so serene. It was always quick to put a person's anxieties to rest. This level of tranquility was nearly impossible to find within the black order. Unless you where Kanda of course, When that man wanted to be left alone (Which was most of the time) it was as if a s meter force field would instantly surround him, one that if anyone tried to penetrate they would be instantly vaporised.

"Here should work" Allen said stopping suddenly, much to Lenalee's dismay as she crashed into his back. "Oww" she moaned as she made contact with the hard, unforgiving ground.

"Lenalee! I'm so, sorry!" Allen said guiltily, reaching a hand out to Lenalee to help pull her up, one that she gratefully accepted. "No problem Allen, just next time a little warning, alright?"

"Defiantly!" Allen said, releasing her hand as he turned to face the blank door once more. Breathing in deeply he let all other thoughts slip from his mind, just letting the music of the fourteenth fill him and letting his desire flow from his heart to fully complete his connection with the arc.

Lenalee watched with a quiet curiosity as Allen shut his eyes, not tight in concentration, as she would have thought, but lightly as if he was only sleeping. She had never been in here to watch when Allen created a door and Lenalee was curious to see how it was done.

Is strange, Lenalee had never really seen Allen as the musically inclined type of person. She had never heard him play or even mention playing an instrument of any kind before. She hadn't even heard him sing until now. Yet here he was, the lyrics of 'the song of the fourteenth' playing on his lips, a song that Lenalee was sure any singer would give their right hand to be able to sing with the skill Allen was portraying right now.

"Done" Allen said quickly breaking Lenalee's train of thought as he slowly backed away form the door in the middle of the city to see the results of his labour.

"Really?" Lenalee asked staring up at the door as the number 29 appeared on the plate above I large luminescent letters. "Yah, I'm getting better at it to. I don't even need the Piano I just have to sing the song through and it appears. Of course that doesn't work if I am doing something large."

"Of course" Lenalee said smiling as Allen pushed open the doorway peering out to the other side before taking a slight step to the bottom, the sole of his foot coming to rest on the almost flat surface of the Hogwarts roof. "Hey Lenalee come out and take a look" He called extending his hand to help her through the door and onto the roof with him.

"Wow" Lenalee gasped softly looking out to the Hogwarts grounds for the first time as Allen went to sit down beside her on the edge of the roof. "It's so beautiful," she said softly staring across the sparkling lake as the sun began setting casting the grounds in a golden glow. "Don't you think so?" she breathed to Allen, leaning against his side resting her head on his shoulder.

"Yah your right." Allen replayed in an equally quiet voice gently placing his head on top of hers. They sat like that for a while, watching the sunset. Just enjoying the silence. It wasn't often that they could just sit like this. Just bask in the feeling of safety and calm, the feeling of Family and belonging. No these moments where few and where always cherished above all others. Just for the reason of knowing that in there war against the Earl it was never certain if this would be the last moment they could have together.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Chapter 3**

"_Joy to the world, Snape's class is dead. Death to the Greasy haired bat!_" Ron Weasley sang at the top of his lungs in a very off key voice as the Gryffindors walked out of their potions class –ideally placed in the dungeons- just half way through the normal lesson, much to the enjoyment of the mass of red and gold students. There was many sighs of relief as they all escaped the dreary and dead air of the dungeons.

"Ronald, I would advice keeping your singing to yourself" Hermione hissed as they walked towards the main part of the school, wincing slightly at the sudden burst of bright light as they walked into the Entrance Hall of the castle. Hermione raised her hand up, attempting to shield the bright light from her eyes, flicking out a lock of frizzy brown hair in the process.

"Hermione are you actually saying that you would want to stay in that damp, depressing class room with that greasy bat of a teacher hovering over you? A teacher I might add that was just waiting for the perfect moment to try and poison our best friend under the reasoning of wanting to check his antidote assignment, _Traitor_" Ron practically shouted causing everyone's attention to draw towards them. Yet the tall and rather lanky red haired teen payed them no need as he jabbed an accusatory finger in Hermione's face.

Hermione's face turned a light shade of pink, not overly enjoying the sudden intensity of everyone's eyes on her back. "No Ron," she said heatedly "I did not say that. I was trying warning you of the possible implications of insulting your potions teacher while still in ear shot of his class room."

Harry laughed at the bewildered expression on Ron's face as he thought through what Hermione had said. Their was no question as too why he hung out with these two. As soon as you got used to the nearly constant bickering and nearly never ending fights, everyday with these two became a nearly never-ending sitcom. Not that he would ever tell them that. Ron would probably stare at him as if he was crazy asking "what in bloody hell is a sitcom?" while Hermione wouldn't talk to him for the rest of the day. Yes somethings are better left unsaid.

"Well it's obvious that Snape did not hear Ron's comment or we would have been in detention by now. So I think it is safe to say how lucky we are that the one day that all of these foreign schools decide to show up is the one day that we have potions last period" Harry said happily pushing open the door to the great hall. The giant room was practically filled to the maximum with students,. The entire school had gathered there, waiting for further instruction from their head of houses. Harry, Hermione and Ron practically had to fight there way over to the Gryffindor table, nearly getting trampled by a confused group of first year Hufflepuffs along the way.

"I know right! Lady luck was actually on our side for once! This needs to go down in the books." Ron said happily as they sat down beside Dean and Neville. "Hey Hermione?" Ron asked watching as the staff of Hogwarts all filled into the room.

"What?" Hermione asked pushing a lock of her bushy brown hair out of her face as she reached into her book bag to pull out a book that had to be at least 3 times the weight of her head. Placing the book down onto the table with a thud she flipped through the pages trying to find her bookmark before settling down to read.

"Who are all the schools that are coming to this thing? I know you told me on the train at the start of semester, but I kind of forgot..." Ron asked sheepishly rubbing his hand through his mess of red hair as Harry peered over Hermione's shoulder trying to figure out what she was reading, those little symbols really made not sense to him what so ever.

Looking up from her book, Hermione took a deep breath, her expression taking on that of when she answered a question in class."Well from what I have read the 3 normal schools that participate in the triwizard tournament are Durmstrang, Beauxbatons and Hogwarts of course. Although, I over heard Professor Vector telling Professor Sprout that a 4th school is going to participate this time, I didn't hear exactly what they where saying but the name sounded like... Rose Cross? I'm not sure however because I haven't read about them before, anywhere. Harry would you mind not reading over my shoulder? It makes it extremely difficult to focus"

Ron nodded "Yah those are the schools you mentioned, but I've never heard of Rose Cross before in my life, what about you Harry?" he said poking Harry in the shoulder.

"Ron, if you and Hermione don't know the answer to a question like that, what are the chances that I'm going to?" Harry said as if stating the obvious causing all of the people who where listening to the conversation to laugh.

"Yah I see your point, but if Miss walking, taking, text book over here doesn't know who they are, then what hole did they crawl out of?" Ron asked causing Hermione to glare at him over her book.

"My Ronald that was even more eloquent then usual. Although you do have a point I have read all about international schools of magic and the name Rose Cross has never come up. I'd imagine that they are just really secretive about there schooling, and are only really making their presence known now." She said softly so not to be over heard by an overzealous teacher or prefect who was just waiting to knock points off of students who where not listening to the head of house's instruction.

Ron raised an eyebrow as Professor McGonagall walked down their table forcing all the students in her house to stand up and make what could almost be considered a line. "Bloody hell, that would make them more paranoid than Durmstrang is. I didn't even think that was possible." he said as the Gryffindor line was practically pushed out of the grand hall and out on to the field to await the arrival of all the schools.

There was a chill in the air that night and a cool breeze ruffled both the damp grass and the students hair as they stood in lines shivering. Most of the students had left their very nice, and very warm cloaks inside their dormitories, noting as they had literally been pushed out of the great hall by a very disgruntled group of teachers. It seemed that the staff of Hogwarts where practically at wits end in there goals to make there school and the students that lived inside of it seem perfect.

They had been in over drive for the last month giving detentions out in a heart beat for things as simple as pressing hands up against a glass window or forgetting to wipe their feet as they entered the school. Filch had been particularly bad, literally stalking students who forgot to wipe their shoes before entering the school.

"So how much longer do we have to wait?" Harry heard his fellow Gryffindor, Lavender whine to Dean as she crossed her arms to ward of the cold.

"Not to much longer, I hope" Dean said as he stomped his feet in a vain attempt to return blood flow to them. True enough just as the words left Dean's lips Professor Dumbledore had stood up sightly making the announcement that Beauxbatons was about to arrive.

The result was instantaneous as the students soon craned their necks to try and catch the first glimpse of the first foreign school. In the end the prize went to a sixth year who was excitedly pointing up over the forbidden forest where a Gigantic Powder Blue horse drawn carriage, the size of a house, flew towards them, drawn by a dozen winged horses.

The carriage collided with the Earth with a thundering crash before rolling to a stop a few feet from where the students stood. A few of the Ravenclaws jumped back a few feet as their line of vision was suddenly filled with stamping Palomino.

A few seconds later the doors to the carriage opened reviling a small boy in pale blue robes jump out and fumble with the golden stairs that connected to the door, and jump nimbly out of the way just in time to avoid getting his hand squished by the shiny, black heel that stepped out soon after, a heel that was almost the size of a child's sled. Although the shoe was not quite so out of place when you saw the woman that followed it. Harry was quite sure as he watched the carriage sag down into the grass that he had never seen such a large woman in his life. She had to be just as tall as Hagrid a possibility that Harry had never that possible before now.

"Ah welcome Madam Maxime, To Hogwarts." Dumbledore said applauding loudly as he steeped foreword into the light flooding from the entrance hall.

"Dumbly-door" Madam Maxime said in a rich booming voice thick with a French Accent. "It 'as veen to long"

"Indeed it has. I hope that the journey here was enjoyable?" Dumbledore asked as he kissed Madam Maxime's extended hand, not even having to bend in the slightest.

"Wonderful, quite wonderful, ah dear me, 'efore I forget. My pupils" Madam Maxime said with a wave of her hand drawing everyones attention away from herself and towards the dozen or so students who stood shivering in her shadow. They all looked to be in their late teens, and looked absolutely miserable in their pale blue silk robes staring up at the castle, not one of them bothering to hide the disapproval that was written clear as day on their faces.

" 'as any one else arrived yet" Madam Maxime asked as her students moved out of the middle of the field trying to get as near to the warmth of the castle as they could with out their head mistress' permission..

"No not quite yet. Would you like to wait with us? Or would you like to enter the castle and warm up a little bit before hand" Dumbledore said as cheerful as ever.

"Go inside I think, but ze 'orses" Madam Maxime replied with a quick glance over her shoulder at her suffering students, non of which had cloak and where all dressed in very thin silk.

"Not to worry our grounds keeper will take care of that, believe me he is more than qualified." Dumbledore said quickly to prevent the comment that would be soon to follow her disbelieving face.

"Well if you are sure. Come pupils, inside we shall go." she said with Clapping her hands before walking to wards the school her students follow along behind as quickly as they could.

"Well one school down." Hermione said softly in the boys ears as Ron stared to the sky excitedly, "All right then, I wonder how Durmstrang is getting here? Because I don't think Hogwarts could handle anymore horses," he said in a whisper his eyes searching the skyline so quickly that Harry was surprised that they didn't fall out.

"I don't know, but if what your dad said about the need to show off is true than its probably going to be something rather different, remember all those tents at the world cup? I don't think that there where two of the same anywhere in that entire campground." Hermione said as she drew her cloak tighter around herself to ward of the cold that was steady getting worse as the minutes drew on

"I know right, Hey what was that noise?" Ron said changing the conversation in a heart beat as his head whipped around to try and locate the source of the sound. It took a couple seconds but Harry soon picked up on what Ron had heard, it was a strange almost sucking sound, one that he couldn't quite place.

"_The Lake, look at the lake!_" someone shouted a the top of there lungs as the whole student body turned around to face the body of water nearly knocking a few kids down as they stretched their necks up to try and see the giant ship that was slowly rising out of the whirlpool that had formed in the centre of the lake.

"That's different..." Harry said as the Gryffindors all nodded in agreement. The ship looked as if it had seen better days and the eerie light that shown from the portholes gave Harry the feeling of those cheesy old pirate movies that Dudley had been so addicted to when they where kids.

Soon the ship had completely risen to the surface and a plank was dropped down the shore of the lake. Followed by the thud of heavy boots on wood as people started to disembark. All the students that got of the ships seemed to have at least better sense then those that had arrived before. These people actually looked a little too hot, wrapped up in those fur cloaks like they where.

A man walked out behind them from the ship and all the students respectfully steeped out of the way as he walked up the field towards where everyone was gathered. He too wore a fur cloak but unlike his students, whose where made out of a very strange kind of shaggy fur his looked to be a very expensive looking sleek silver that seemed to catch every once of the moonlight in its glow.

"Dumbledore, good to see you" the man said happily as he walked up to the castle reaching forward to shake the Headmasters hand a gesture that was replayed with equal enthusiasm.

"The same to you Professor Karkaroff!" Dumbledore replayed happily as Karkaroff stared up at the castle.

"Ah its good to be back at dear old Hogwarts" Karkaroff said in what most people would consider to be a warm voice but to Harry it seemed rather distant as if he didn't believe in what he spoke. "Dumbledore do you think that I could take my students inside? Viktor here has a slight head cold, and the warmth would probably be the best for him right now."

Dumbledore smiled softly "Of course my dear fellow, go on right ahead Madam Maxime is already inside and we will be following in a few minutes"

"Perfect, Viktor? Come up here please. We are going inside the school now"

As Karkaroff waved, a student stepped out from behind him, a Student than Ron recognized almost immediately.

"Harry its Krum, Viktor Krum, from the World cup! Harry!" He shouted pointing at the famous seeker but Harry wasn't watching in fact most people weren't "What is everyone staring at?" Ron asked "There's a world famous athlete walking into our school at this very moment and nobody cares! What in bloody hell is wrong with you people"

Hermione sighed as she reached forward to turn the red head's face to the centre of the field just in front of them where a series of glowing white Diamonds where materializing before there very eyes.

"What is that? I've never read about anything like it before in my life." Hermione asked in shock as the Diamonds took a more solid looking form and the number 29 engraved itself into the tip. The Professors where even more shocked than she was. None of the students had ever seen that look on their faces before and in another moment it probably would have seemed pretty Funny.

"Wow" Harry breathed as the Diamonds came to there full brilliance in front of them still glowing brightly as if it was fulled by its own sun.

"Is that Rose Cross?" Hermione asked as the Surface of the largest diamond seemed to ripple as if it was water.

"I guess so, I can't think of anything else" Harry said staring at it as if it where the most beautiful thing in the world, yet wary as if it could explode at any second.

"Hey look, some one is coming out" Neville said excitedly as a body seemed to push its way through the largest diamond just where the ripples had formed. The body turned out to be a tall thin faced Chinese man wearing what looked like a cross between a white lab coat and a military jacket with silver trim. A white beanie was placed lightly on top of his almost shoulder length black hair and a stylish pair of glasses framed his face.

It was easy to tell from first glance that this man had to be the headmaster of the school even though he required no act of servitude from his students (who had yet to make an appearance) to do so. It was the same thing that people could feel from Dumbledore, even from a distance you could just instantly tell who he was, even if his students didn't bow at his feet as the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had.

"Ah welcome, welcome to Hogwarts. You must be Professor Komui" Dumbledore said warmly walking forward to probably greet the man as 4 more people slowly made there way the through the 'doorway' as it was now called.

The man, Komui smiled. "That would be me yes, But don't worry about the Professor business I prefer Komui just fine. I would have to guess that you are the Professor Dumbledore I have read so much about. I must humbly thank you on behalf of my students on this opportunity to test our schools in this most prestigious of tournament."

"Oh not at all, it was my pleasure. It is always wonderful to be able to try out some new blood in our stuffy old tournaments. Are these your students?" Dumbledore said cheerfully as he glanced towards the teenagers that had calmly gathered around Komui.

"Yes these are indeed my students" Komui said as Harry drew his eyes to the very -well there was no other word for it- Strange looking group of teenagers. Each of them wore a long hooded cloak/jacket type object with a beautiful silver cross on there left chest, and yet that is where any similarities ended.

The first teen had a very harshly beautiful look about him, almost like a diamond. He was a tall Japanese man with a very thin yet muscular build. His long dark blue hair was tied back into a lose pony tail and his dark eyes gleamed in the darkness with a light which could easily match Professor Snape's glare in its hardness. At the same time the teen that stood beside him was almost the exact opposite. His red hair -a colour that easily rivalled that of the Weasley family- was spike down over his face with no obvious styling attempt what so ever. His left eye was covered by an eye path while his right was a bright green colour that glittered in permanent laughter.

There were two more students that had arrived through the 'doorway'. It seemed that there was only on girl in the group. Beautiful, asian teenage girl with Greenish black hair which reached down to her chin and a wide grin on her face as she tugged at the hood of the last teenager who was fighting to keep it where it was. Harry could see much of this teen but that didn't mater that much as they started to head into the school soon after.

It was funny thought, these teenagers didn't seem to have the same relationship with their headmaster as any of the other schools did. Even at Hogwarts everyone walked behind Professor Dumbledore almost subconsciously.

For these teens however, it seemed that their relationship was just a bit more closely knit as they all walked beside the man. Komui even seemed happy with this as had placed his hand on the girls shoulder, affectionately leading her towards the castle.

"And I thought we where strange" Hermione hissed under her breath as they all gratefully trudged back into the castle relishing in the warmth of the great hall as they sat down at the Gryffindor table once again.

"We are, but these guys are the icing on the cake!" Harry said as they watched the Rose Cross students stand off to the corner slightly quietly observing as the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons all merged into the centre of the room.

"Ah who cares about them though, look The Durmstrang students are all picking a seat, maybe Krum will come and sit with us. Dean move over will you, we need to make some room. Ugh too late they've gone to go and sit with the Slytherins. Look at Malfoy that slime git, looking so smug, I bet Krum sees right through him though." Ron said staring at the seeker from across the room as the Beauxbatons students all settled down at the Ravenclaw table.

"Ah Ron I didn't know you swung that way!" Dean said snickering as Ron's ears turned bright red.

"No I don't I just think he is the best seeker on the face of the planet. I wonder where there sleeping tonight, Krum could have my bed."

"Really?" Harry said eyebrows going up underneath his mess of black hair as Ron's ears turned even redder (If that was even possible).

"N-not like that, I'll sleep on the floor, the floor!" Ron stammered pressing his hands to the side of his head to hide his ears.

"Ron what is your problem? he's just an athlete, so unless you plan on joining the fan club over there would you please stop talking about it." Hermione growled as the Rose cross students all started to file over to their table.

"Hi Do you mind if we join you?" the girl asked as they approached

Hermione nodded "Of course here, pull up a seat." she said happily as Harry moved over a seat to open up some room.

"Thank you, my name is Lenalee by the way" Lenalee said extending her hand to Hermione who shook it warmly.

"I'm Hermione and this Ron and Harry" Hermione said as the Rose Cross students all sat down on either side of the table.

Red haired teen smiled as they all stared across the table, "Nice to meet you all, the name's Lavi and the sourpuss over here is Kanda and Allen is the kid sitting beside Harry there." he said as everyone besides Allen took off their cloaks revealing a black military style uniform with red trim, and a delicate golden beading going from there right shoulders to the same silver cross just over there hearts. Harry guessed that it was their school crest.

"Wow nice uniforms" Ron said staring openly at the crests on their uniforms which looked to be crafted from pure silver before staring down at his old, worn and plain faded black robes. "Those must have been pretty expensive all that silver and all, they even look custom made. Kanda's is so different then yours"

Lavi laughed as he plucked at the sleeve of his jacket "They probably are but we didn't pay a cent. You see our school is really small so we have some extra money in our budget for things like custom uniforms. Believe me its a good thing because I seriously doubt that Kanda and Allen could agree on one style. And while we are on the subject, Allen take off your jacket would you!" he said merrily yanking at Allen's cloak/jacket as the teen glared hotly from under his hood. Finally Allen removed the jacket revealing his face the first time.

"Lavi! Did you have to do that, I like my hood, its warm!"

Allen's uniform was just like everyone else's, but was not quite as short as Lavi and Lenalee's and not nearly as long as Kanda's knee length Jacket. But it wasn't the uniform that caught just about everyone in the Great hall's eye. It was his face, or more specifically the bright white hair that gently framed his face. The effect was almost instant as the younger kids all stared at him with their mouths agape and some of the older girls started to giggle,like, well like the school girls that they were.

"Wow look at his hair! I wonder how he got it like that because there is no way that is natural" a fifth year girl giggled to her friend causing Hermione to glare at her with all her strength instantly dropping the temperature surrounding the Gryffindor table by a few degrees.

"Linda, Show some respect would you" Hermione hissed at the girl who instantly looked shocked at Hermione's harsh tone.

"But Hermione, you can't deny that his hair is just to weird! And look at that scar it goes straight down his face! Come on everybody knows that, you love guys with scars. I wonder what it looks like on top? You know underneath his hair."

Hermione's glare intensified as her own personal interests where dragged into the conversation. Her face turned red as her anger rose. There was one rule that Harry had kept dear to his heart ever sense he had met Hermione. Never, piss of someone with a larger than average vocabulary.

Allen was quick to act however as he laughed shaking his head. "Don't worry about it Hermione" He said in a Happy voice, neatly folding his jacket beside him. He seemed unaffected by all the attention he was getting as he started to talk to Lenalee who was sitting across from him as if they where the only ones in the hall

Harry's eyebrow rose, "You actually don't mind?" he asked as Allen blinked at him in speculation.

"Yah, not at all, my hairs been like this for a while now, I've gotten used to all the attention and even the colour, or lack their off" He said watching as Komui made his way up to the Teachers table looking slightly out of place among all of the high strung professors that surrounded him.

"You mean it wasn't always white? How did you manage to get it that way?" Ron asked leaning across Harry so he could better talk to Allen.

Allen's Grey eyes darkened momentarily as a slight frown formed on his face, before it was replaced with another smile as he answered Ron's question "I Had a pretty good fright several years ago, scared the leaving daylights out of me to the point that it removed the colour, I had brown hair at one point in my life believe it or not. I got this scar that day too" He said cheerily as he pointed to the scar on his left cheek, lifting the top part of his fringe to show the red star carved into his forehead.

Hermione's eyes grew large, and her fingers twitched for a moment towards the odd cut and Ron's mouth fell open. "Wha... what? And I thought Harry's was weird, how on earth did you get it that shape." He gasped, not even stopping himself from staring gape jawed at the odd cut.

Allen just shrugged however, a smile on his face. "I don't know really, my memory kind of blanked out. But I would assume that I cut it on something star shaped."

Harry fought down the urge to press a hand to his own scar. Allen seemed so at ease with his scar, not even caring that it scored down his cheek and drew everyone's eye. Yet Harry still flattened down his fringe every-time he walked in a public place. Whether it was Wizarding or Muggle, it didn't matter having an odd shape on your head always drew attention. Coming to think about it though Harry had it good with his own scar, a smallish lightening bolt in his forehead. If it wasn't for the fact that the whole wizarding community already new that it was there it probably would have passed unnoticed with the right hair cut.


	4. Chapter 4

The food at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was always something to behold. The house elves (much to Hermione's disgust) always worked as hard as they could to make sure that each and every morsel of food was cooked to absolute perfection. But this time they had gone overboard with all the food, trying to please it seemed, all of the foreign students that were sharing their table. There were dishes that only Hermione could pronounce and some dishes that even she couldn't identify. Then there were the dishes that everyone was literally afraid to touch, well almost everyone...

Harry couldn't help but stare as he watched Allen stack his plate sky high with just about everything he could find. Originally, Harry had thought that this had something to do with the excitement of being in a new place, but apparently this was a common thing for the Rose cross students. In less than five minutes Allen's plate had all been but licked clean, and still the white haired boy was going for more.

Harry and Ron looked at each other in surprise as more and more food was transferred onto Allen's plate and then disappeared. This would probably be the only time in Hogwarts history when there was actually not enough food. Just when that horrifying thought was about to become a reality though, Lenalee leaned forward and slapped Allen's hand good naturally, preventing him from taking all of the food.

"Save some for everyone else will you Allen-kun" Lenalee said softly as Allen sighed dramatically holding his stomach, a forlorn expression on his face.

"But Lenalee, I'm still hungry, I only had enough time for breakfast!" he groaned. Harry's jaw dropped at this, this kid had probably eaten more food than both he and Ron had in their combined life times, in one go, and he was still hungry?

The food soon flickered softly as it disappeared from the plates, leaving them just as clean as they had been when everyone had entered the hall. Dumbledore stood up from his seat beside Madam Maxime and Komui at the staff table. The aged wizard walked away from the table, his long purple robes sweeping out behind him dramatically as he went. When he stood at podium in the front of the hall, Dumbledore stretched his arms wide as if welcoming both the foreigners and the students of Hogwarts into his presence.

"The moment has come." Dumbledore said catching everyone's attention instantly. "The Triwizard Tournament is about to start. I would like to explain a few things before we bring in the casket, just to clarify procedure

.  
"Let me introduce, for those who do not know them, Mr. Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and Mr. Ludo Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports

"These two," Dumbledore continued, "Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch, have worked tirelessly over the last few months to make this Tournament work, and they will be joining myself, Madam Maxime, and Professor Karkaroff to judge the champions' efforts. We will also be welcoming to our table the Headmaster of Rose Cross School of Alternative Magicks, Professor Komui; oh, sorry, just Komui as he prefers to be called."

Harry was startled for a second as Dumbledore said the full name for Rose Cross, but looking around slightly it was obvious that Ron had not noticed. Turning to Hermione he could see that her eyes had hardened as she mouthed _Alternative Magicks?_ Dumbledore looked around again and smiled before saying, "The casket, please, Mr. Filch."

Filch approached Dumbledore with a great wooden chest that was encrusted with jewels. In the silence that followed, Dumbledore spoke again. "The instructions for the three tasks the champions face this year have been carefully examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman and they have made the necessary arrangements for each of the three challenges. As you know, there will be three tasks, spaced out throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many fields...magical prowess, daring, powers of deduction, and, of course, ability to cope with danger. Only four champions compete in the tournament, one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they do each of the tasks and the champion with the highest total after the third task will get the Triwizard Cup. The champions will be chosen by our impartial selector; the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore tapped on the casket three times with his wand, and the lid slowly opened. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a huge wooden cup, filled to the brim with blue-white flames.  
Everyone's eyes drew to the wooden cup as the nearly overwhelming magical aura filled the room. Dumbledore closed the casket and set the goblet on top of it.

"Anybody wishing to submit their names as champion for their school must write their name and school clearly on a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. Those wanting to be champion have twenty-four hours in which to submit their name. Tomorrow night, the goblet will return the names of those it felt most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be in the entrance hall tonight. To make sure no one underage tries to become champion, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire. No one under seventeen will be able to cross.

"Before you enter, I warn you that once you submit your name, you cannot back out if you are chosen."  
There was a bit of murmuring at this.

"Now, I believe it is time for bed. Good night."

With that cue, the entire student body got up and left the room, stomachs full and nerves on overdrive about information about the Triwizard Tournament. Even though, as Hermione pointed out, they really couldn't call it that anymore, not with four students participating this year.

"Damn it Hermione, must you mess with my poor mind every chance you get?" Ron whined, as he, Harry, Hermione, Lenalee, Lavi, and Allen left the great hall. They had all agreed to walk up to Gryffindor tower together, and then the students were going to take a quick trip to Dumbledore's office. Well everyone but Kanda, who had decided that he was going for a walk by himself and would meet up later, and he announced that he was not to be followed by anyone.

Allen chuckled as he and Harry walked a little bit in front of the group, so not to be trampled in the mass of people that where leaving the Great Hall. "Is that normal for you guys?" he asked as soon as he stopped laughing, even though the corners of his mouth were still twitching slightly.  
"Yeah it is, but you get used to it after awhile" Harry replied good naturedly, tipping his head back to catch the eyes of his best friends, who where currently glaring daggers at each other even though they were trying not to smile.

Allen laughed even harder this time. Placing a hand on the stitch in his side as he tried to gain control of his breathing, he said, "You hear that Lavi" he gasped out after a couple of minutes "You get used to it! Get used to it he says! I wonder if we call Kanda,'Yuu-chan' enough, maybe he'll get used to it, too!"  
"I certainly hope not!" Lavi said with a perfectly straight face "Can you imagine how boring life would be if Kanda didn't care if we called him Yuu? The only thing that would be worse would be if Allen didn't react when we call him by his nickname. Isn't that right Bean Sprout?"

Harry jumped out of the way as flames erupted around the white haired boy beside him. "Do not call me that, Rabbit Boy! My name is Allen!" Allen yelled as he leaped towards Lavi.

"Oh, it's on Bean Sprout" Lavi said, smirking as he shifted his weight slightly as Allen jumped towards him, fist raised.  
The two boys were fighting now, tugging at each other's faces as they pushed off the walls. The fight came to an abrupt end however, when Allen trying desperately to get the upper hand in the fight, lurched backwards, right into Professor Karkroff.

"I'm so sorry, sir!" Allen said as he scrambled backwards in a not-so overly graceful manner. Allen sunk into a bow, his cheeks tinted slightly pink as he tried to show how truly sorry he was for the mishap. Even this sincere attempt at an apology did nothing to sway the Headmaster of Durmstrang however.

"Watch where you are going, you disgusting, filthy child" Karkaroff hissed between clenched teeth, gingerly wiping off the front of his silvery fur coat, as if trying to remove some horrible contaminate. "I think I am asking too much however, how could such an inbreed, uneducated, runt such as yourself understand something so simple as respecting those of higher importance than yourself." he sneered revealing slightly yellowed teeth as he took in Allen's bright white hair and the flash of black skin that had appeared from between his glove and sleeve as Allen stood up.

Lavi's hand clenched into a fist. Just because Allen could sit and take an insult like that and not show any outward emotion, and when in the mood to do so, mind you, so could he, but Lavi was not in the mood to just sit there and not react. Lavi stepped forward; ready to give the 'professor' a piece of his mind, until a soft pressure on his fist caused him to look back. Looking at Lenalee's face, Lavi quickly took in the pleading note in her eye as she shook her head softly, desperately trying to tell him not to attack the Headmaster of another school. Lavi sighed as he unclenched his fist, relaxing his shoulders.  
Karkaroff smirked as he watched Lavi retreat back towards the other students. Taking this as a victory he stuck his nose up into the air and strutted towards the door, which Harry held open for him, pausing only to catch a disdainful glance at the door opener. "Thank yo..." and with that Karkaroff's attitude came back down to earth with a crash that could have been heard in China.

"Y-y-you're" Karkaroff stuttered as he stared gaped, open-jawed at Harry, completely ignoring his eyes, in favor of his forehead. Karkaroff, it seemed, was having problems in even getting one word out as he continued to stare.

"Yes Karkaroff, that's Harry Potter" the voice came from behind them, followed by the clunking sound that wood makes when it strikes marble.

"Hello Professor Moody" Hermione said as she stepped out of the teacher's way, allowing him to approach. Everyone from Rose Cross was startled by his... for lack of a better word, startling appearance. Grizzly grey hair, scarred skin, a single electric blue eyeball, that appeared to be unable to stay in one place defined this unique man

Lavi whistled low under his breath as the professor approached Karkaroff, a wicked gleam in his normal eye. The two teachers were soon arguing heatedly, well at least Karkaroff was anyway, Moody just looked bored out of his mind. He probably was, mind you, because it only took Moody a few minutes to make Karkaroff leave the hall at the fastest pace he could go without looking like a chicken.  
"Idiot" Moody grumbled as he prepared to walk through the door way as well, but something caught his eye. Reaching back, he grabbed Allen's wrist before the white haired teen had gotten too far from the door. Moody yanked Allen away from the rest of the crowd, just out of the way of prying ears.  
"So you're one of those Rose Cross kids?" Moody asked in a low voice as Allen removed his hand from the teachers grip.

"Yes, I am" Allen replied politely as he rubbed his wrist. He was sure to have a bruise there in the morning.

Moody's normal eye narrowed slightly in recognition as his blue eye fixed itself on his arm, before settling on to his scar, following it up his face, right to the place where the pentagram was imprinted on his forehead and then back down to his left arm. "Interesting," Moody said, staring attentively at that one spot with both eyes, a broad grin of understanding spreading across his mangled face. Allen felt a chill run down his spine, there was no way that man could see his arm through the cloth of his sleeve and his glove, and yet the man seemed to stare right at the arm as if he knew what lay hidden from prying eyes.

And then Moody was gone, already pushing his way back through the crowds of students before disappearing completely.

'That was strange' Allen thought to himself as he ran on ahead to where Lenalee and Lavi were walking with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Hey Allen, where did you go?" Harry asked as Allen ran up to them. By the time he had managed to catch up to his friends, they were already halfway up the grand staircase.  
"That teacher from earlier wanted to ask me some questions about our school," Allen said, falling into stride with his friends.

Hermione frowned slightly "Yeah we wanted to ask you guys about that too." She said, curiosity filling her voice. "I have never even heard of you before, let alone anything to do with alternative magicks. I always thought that humans could only do wand magic. All other types are what the magical creatures of our realm possess. You know, lesser magicks."

The Rose Cross all looked at each other before Lavi chuckled softly. "I'm sort of surprised that you haven't heard about us Hermione." He said lying through his teeth, pulling a story out of midair. "You see, magick, or the type you use: magic, is for the most part the same the same thing. The only difference between the two is the focal point. As 'wizards' you use wands to trigger the energy, we don't. So because of this, the results are a little different, but the power is the same"

Ron and Harry looked impressed by the completely fictional explanation, much to Lavi's pleasure. Bookman had once told him that the more logical a lie sounded, the more likely people were to believe it. 'Apparently Panda was right for once.' Lavi thought, 'well maybe not completely'. Hermione did not seem convinced by Lavi's theory, but since she had found nothing to pick about it, she kept her mouth shut. Or at least she would until she hit the library.

"Well we're here," Harry said coming to a halt in front of a large, pink painting of a fat lady. Quickly saying the password he had been told earlier, Harry watched expectantly as the door opened, revealing the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.

"Are you guys gonna come in?" Ron asked, one foot in the common room. Allen shook his head, saying that they had a meeting with Professor Dumbledore that they had to be getting to. And with that they were gone, walking back down the staircase that they had just gone up.

Harry shook his head as he followed his friends into the Gryffindor common room. "Well they seemed nice" He said as he sat down in one of the comfy, crimson armchairs, that were placed around the always cheerful looking fire.

"Yeah they do, well except for, what's his face... the one with the ponytail... Kanda? He looks like one of those people that are in a permanent bad mood, you know?" Ron said, earning a chuckle from the people sitting around him.

Harry smiled as he turned his attention over to where Hermione was sitting just a couple of chairs off to the side, staring into the fire, apparently lost in thought. Smirking slightly Harry got up from his chair and crept over to Hermione's, as quietly as humanly possible. Once he was behind her chair he raised his arm and placed his hand in front of Hermione's head and snapped his fingers.

Hermione jumped as the loud sound echoed in her ear. Turning around glaring at the still smiling Harry she glared at the raven haired boy, only causing the laughter that was spreading through the common room to double. "What was that for?" she snapped

.  
"You looked out of it, that's all" Harry said shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly before sinking back into his own chair. "We wanted to ask you what you thought about the Rose Cross students, but you were stuck in your own little world, so it was kind of difficult," he said as Ron snickered slightly.  
Hermione raised an eyebrow before turning back to face the fire.

"They seem like they could be fun people to be around, better than the Beauxbatons crowd to be sure." she said, not once turning her attention away from the flickering flames that kissed her cheeks. Even as she spoke those words of endearment however, another set of thoughts raced around her head always to be followed by the words: Alternative Magicks.  
'But I don't trust them'


	5. Chapter 5

Wow it has been awhile since I last update. I'm dreadfully sorry, I went on a trip to Europe during spring break, and things have been hectic ever since. I have several chapters already done for this and I'll type them up asap!

Disclaimer: Even though I will be using the characters from D Gray man and Harry Potter (Mainly because am too lazy to come up with any of my own) I do not own either.

////

It was the night that everyone in the school was looking forward to. Tonight the champions were decided and the race for the gold started. Every person in the school was twitching in excitement, no matter where they were from.

This was the true competition. School against school, classmate against classmate. Everyone had one specific person who they wanted to win the the title of champion for their school, and spirits forbid anyone else get chosen. At least the houses were, for the most part, united. The Gryffindors had a champion, as did the Slytherins, and the Ravenclaws. Even the Hufflepuffs had chosen, Cedric Diggory (not that many people took this seriously however).

Harry was smiling as he waited for classes to finish for the day. The Hogwarts students had all placed their names in the Goblet of Fire, same with the Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang students. But no one had seen any of the Rose Cross students place their names in the cup. There were rumors however that they were only allowed one name in the cup, because of all the changes that had been made to the cup. Harry wasn't sure if he believed this however. In Hogwarts, unless solid fact could be shoved into your face, there was no real point in accepting anything. Occasionally these rumors could be correct, Harry however was perfectly satisfied with skepticism.

In the other side of the school, the root of that rumor was taking place in the warm, sun streaked streets of Noah's Ark.

It seemed to be permanently summer inside of the Ark. Even though winter was quickly making its presence known to the world, the Exorcists of the Black Order where more than happy to remove their jackets and soak up the warmth.

Allen sighed happily as he leaned his back up against one of the many white washed doors that lined the streets. Digging into his pocket Allen slipped out the bag of rice balls he had all but begged Jerry to give him that morning. Popping one of the treats into his mouth, Allen tried to get comfortable against the door, even though the feeling of being watched was creeping down his spine.

"Why are you all staring at me?" He asked as Lavi, Lenalee, and Komui started to grin at him in the most unnerving way they could manage.

"Allen we've had a vote" Lavi said innocently as he sat down beside Allen, taking one of the rice balls out of the teen's outstretched hand, enjoying the look of confusion that spread across his face.

"Thanks for that Lavi, you were very informative, So what's your point?" Allen asked dully as he watched his last piece of food disappear into Lavi's greedy mouth.

Lenalee sat down on Allen's other side gently wrapping her arm through his. "Our point is, that we want you to be Rose Cross' representative in the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

Allen's eyebrow rose slightly as he let those words settle in his mind. Spending three-quarters of this school year constantly worrying about what twisted contests these wizards could come up with did not seem overly appealing for some reason.

"Why do I have to do it?" Allen asked, crossing his arms over his chest, a sour look forming on his face.

Lavi laughed as he ruffled Allen's hair, causing the boy's frown to deepen. "Sorry bean sprout, but we voted. It's not our fault that you were too busy stuffing your face to notice," he said jokingly, as Allen pushed away Lavi's hand from his white hair.

"Sure, we'll just say that then. But I'm sure I did this kind of thing last time, isn't it someone else's turn by now? I'm sure that either Lavi or Lenalee would be a much finer choice." Allen sounded nearly desperate now, his mind whirring trying to find a way out of doing this.

Komui looked panic stricken at the very thought of his 'delicate' little sister participating in such a dangerous tournament. "There is no way that I would willing permit my precious little Lenalee to go and enter in such a perilous tournament" he said, practically in hysterics.

"As Bookman Jr, I'm morally obligated to only take in events from the sideline. So as much as I want to help you Allen, I am positive that participating in a multi schooled tournament would not fit into that very strict job description." Lavi said, smirking slightly. He knew that his reasoning was flawless. Unless everyone in this room wanted Bookman to come, looking for their hides, Lavi was out.

There wasn't even a point in asking Kanda. The day that Allen could convince Kanda to do anything that would be helpful to him was the day that he wanted to become the boyfriend of Noah Road.

"You guys all just want to watch me make a fool of myself, don't you?" Allen asked, mock annoyance in his voice as he sank back down, leaning against the door, once again in defeat.

"Ah, Allen you know us so well!" Lavi said standing up and stretching out his long limbs. "We should probably be heading back into the school now. Allen needs to put his name into the cup before time runs out. And someone need to make sure that he remembers to put his own name down on the sheet of paper and not Yuu-chan's"

Kanda's eye twitched slightly at Lavi's use of his chosen name. His hand flew down to the hilt of his sword, Mugan, at a speed that Allen wasn't sure was possible. But as quick as Kanda was, it wasn't quite quick enough. Lavi was nowhere to be found. "That idiotic Rabbit is a dead man walking." Kanda growled out between clenched teeth as he stomped down the alley, Mugan kept loose in its sheath, practically screaming for Lavi's blood.

Kanda stopped only for a second in his death, search and destroy mission to find Lavi. With a sharp glance over his shoulder he made sure to grab Allen's eye before speaking in a voice that not-so subtly hinted violence. "Bean sprout, if you even dare to think of putting my name into the Goblet of Fire, I'll be coming after you just as soon as I clean Lavi's guts off of Mugan." and with that he was gone, his threat hanging heavily in the air.

Lenalee held out her hand, helping to pull Allen to his feet. They walked down the streets together with Komui. Lavi's taunting and Kanda's shouts could easily be heard echoing through the uninhibited city.

"Are they really necessary for this mission?" Allen asked to Komui, causing Lenalee to giggle slightly. Komui looked thoughtful before replying that unfortunately, yes both Lavi and Kanda were required.

"But," Komui added in as an afterthought. "After this, I don't think that the Pope himself could ever make me pair those two together on a mission. At least not the ones that I am apart of, anyway."

Allen laughed, "Let me guess, unless you're there, I'm on my own?"

"Of course" both Komui and Lenalee replied simultaneously, causing all three of them to laugh. Allen directed the Ark to open up right in front of the great Hall, before leaving the gate open just beside the overly violent tree that resided in the courtyard.

////

Once again the Great hall was packed to the max with students. All of the Schools had eaten separately for most of the meals since their arrival, and even though the last night they had been together was only 24 hours previous, Harry was still surprised by the sheer magnitude of people that were crowded into the hall.

There were people sitting on just about every surface available, just the foreign students could get a proper seat. To the naked eye it would seem like common curtsy, but, as the Ravenclaws and Slytherins had put it, "The French kids are hot!" and, "The Durmstrang's all know Victor Krum, I wonder if they can get me an autograph!"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Allen, and the others were currently sitting on the row two steps beside the Gryffindor table, slightly out of the way of all the noise of the rest of the tables. Well, at least until Dumbledore had walked up to the center of the room, saying in his loud voice that the Goblet of Fire had made its decision.

The room became dead silent in a heartbeat. Hundreds of eyes were instantly focused on the cup with an indescribable ferocity. The Goblet of Fire looked like it always did, just a plain wooden cup with bright blue flames licked around the edges. And yet Dumbledore seemed to be waiting for something. Nobody dared break the silence that filled the hall. It was almost as if they thought that if they even coughed, nothing would happen

The flames coming from the goblet suddenly flared, turning a bright angry red as they shot to the roof. Several of the students jumped from their seats as the flames started to turn their way, while others plain old fell out of their seats from the shock.

A small piece of paper fluttered down into Dumbledore's hand. It was still smoking as Dumbledore gently unwrinkled the scorched edges. Trying to read the cursive writing on the back of the parchment, Dumbledore held the paper up to the disturbingly red flames that continued to shoot from the goblet, reading the name out to the people in the room.

"And the name of the Rose Cross champion is: ALLEN WALKER!" Dumbledore said in a booming voice as Allen stood up, walking towards the large oak door that Dumbledore was directing him too.

There was a polite applause that followed the white haired exorcist as he pushed open the heavy door that led into the room. Compared to the rest of the school, the room that Allen entered was relatively small. A cheery fire crackled in the corner with a comfy looking couch sitting in front of it. Book cases lined the far wall, while stacks of trophies lined the wall closest to Allen. Each one gleamed with such a perfect shine that the entire room was reflected off of their glowing surfaces.

Deciding that he had some time to kill before anything overly exciting happened; Allen grabbed one of the books on the shelf and plunked himself down on the couch. The book itself as he soon gathered, titled Hogwarts: A History, was dreadfully boring, but the pictures that never seemed to stop moving kept him reading.

Victor Krum was the first to follow Allen into the room a few minutes later. The sulky looking athlete only passed a quick glance at Allen before slumping off to stand in the corner of the room, nearly completely hiding himself in the shadows. 'Must be anti-social' Allen thought as he returned back to his book.

Fleur Delacore entered the room a few minutes later, not even bothering to recognized Allen's existence before she gracefully walked over to Krum, who seemed to be ignoring her. This was something Allen had noticed most men found hard to do, with Fleur's perfect features and white gold hair that shone down to her waist. Just by walking by, most of the teenage boys in the school had their minds turned to mush. Krum seemed to be doing a pretty good job however, because after a few minutes, Fleur had given up, deciding instead to try and fix her already immaculate hair, from the reflection given off the golden trophies that lined the walls. Even though she made it obvious that they were not clean enough for her standards.

Soon the last Champion had walked through the door, surveying the room with a broad grin plastered on his face. As the boy walked forward Allen was slightly surprised to see the Hufflepuff emblem emblazoned on his chest. From what Allen had heard and read about the houses of Hogwarts, he had been expecting a Gryffindor or a Slytherin to be awarded the title of Champion.

The Hufflepuff started to walk towards Allen's spot in front of the fire, passing off Fleur with a polite smile as he sat down on the couch. The boy soon introduced himself as Cedric Diggory and was pretty easy to talk to, as they sat waiting for instructions on what to do next.

Barley five minutes had passed before the door opened again. Softly this time, as if the person opening it was unsure of the motion. Allen could not see who the person was as he walked along the shadows hesitantly. Eventually he ran out of shadow however and Allen caught sight of a pair of brilliant emerald eyes.

"Harry?! What are you doing here?"

Allen was up out of his seat in a flash, quickly taking in the greenish tinge to the boys pale face and the shock that seemed to radiate out of every pore of his shaking body.

"What happened Harry? Is something wrong?" Allen was getting worried now. Had something gone wrong? Was there an Akuma attacking? The room they were in was completely soundproof when the door was closed; So Allen was as good as blind in here. 'At least my eye isn't going off' Allen thought in a desperate attempt to calm himself. 'But what if the magic is interfering with it?!'

Shutting down that little pessimistic voice in the back of his head, Allen walked forwards to the door, trying to see what had scared Harry speechless.

The moment Allen's hand touched the door however, he was slammed up against the wall as a giant hand pushed the door open, with such an alarming force that the door rattled in its hinges and Allen was certain his head had left an imprint in the wall.

Allen shock his head slightly trying to remove the stars from his vision as Komui stooped down beside him helping him to stand.

"Whoa, what hit me?" Allen said as the world started to whirl around him in a swirl of colors. Komui led him over to the couch Allen had been sitting on earlier, and a bag of ice (probably supplied by Professor Dumbledore's wand) was pressed lightly against his head.

"Madam Maxime I would appreciate and apology for my student, you very nearly gave him a concussion." Komui said admonishingly, as he sifted the ice pack, making sure that it completely covered the nicely sized lump on Allen's head.

But Madam Maxime just ignored him as she pushed her way to the front of the room, a murderous gleam in her eye. "'e cheated!!!!" She said, in a voice that shook the mirrors on the walls, causing Allen to look up to Komui, questions written all over his face. But Komui just shook his head, watching Professor Dumbledore intently as the aged Headmaster swept before his black haired student.

"Harry did you place your name into the Goblet of Fire?" Dumbledore asked, his hands on Harry's shoulder. Harry shook his head numbly. "Did you ask another student to do it for you?" Yet again Harry shook his head, and with the look of shock and fear written across his face, Allen believed him.

"But of course 'e is lying" Madam Maxime barked as Karkaroff stepped into the light obviously trying to hide his large smirk behind a frown.

"I agree with Madam Maxime-" He said in an oily voice. Professor Moody cut in before Karkaroff could say anything else on the subject.

"There is absolutely no way in hell that a fourth year could in anyway conjure up enough magic to be able to confound the Goblet of Fire. It took five highly trained Ministry officials to convince the goblet to accept one of the Rose Cross crowd" He growled in a dark voice.

Karkaroff shrunk back slightly at the tone in Moody's voice, but bounced back quickly with a triumphant gleam in his eye. "So what you are saying is that someone in your ministry of Magic is trying to give Hogwarts an unfair advantage? Well then I refuse to allow my school to participate."

"It doesn't work that way Karkaroff. Now that Durmstrang has its champion, they must participate." Moody laughed, leaning close into Karkaroff's face, his magical eye focusing dead on.

Madam Maxime looked livid at the very thought of her precious student having to deal with an unfair advantage.Right before she exploded however Bartimus Crouch stepped in, explaining in an automated manner that there was nothing that could be done to help the manner, they would have to continue the tournament.

"Now that we have all that messiness down with, we can settle the far more important matters. The first task for instance!" Ludo Bagmon said, clapping his hands together in childish delight. "We can't tell you exactly what it is of course, where would the fun be in that? What I _can_ tell you is that we will be judging you on how well you work under pressure! The task will start on the first of November."

////

Allen groaned as both he and Komui walked out towards the front doors of the school. "I can't believe that they are not even going to bother telling us what the first task is, that is so annoying." Allen said as they approached the courtyard where Noah's Ark was located for easy access for the Rose Cross students.

Komui laughed slapping a hand on Allen's shoulder. "Trust me Allen, in a tournament like this, where the headmasters and mistresses are even more concerned about winning than the students are, they will know every detail about the first teaks long before it comes. So basically what I'm trying to tell you, is its not cheating if you don't get caught!"

"Thanks Komui, I think" Allen said as they pushed through the ark. Anymore chance to talk Komui was destroyed at this point, in less than 30 seconds Allen had been bombarded by every member of the Black Order who cared enough to come.

The goose egg on the back of his head was poked at and tutted about by the medical staff, while the science team was more than a little eager to find out about everything to do with this mysterious magic substance.

Was it Innocence?

A science experiment gone wrong?

A trick?

Actually magic?

And the best part of this little reunion (or at least in Allen's eyes) was that Jerry had whipped up enough food that even Allen would be full for a week by the time they all finished.

This was going to be one heck of a party.

////


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone hope your ready to read the New chapter of Rose Cross. This was kind of fun to write, even though it took me forever to be able to decode my writing. Buses + Already small and messy writing = Illegible.

betaed by Crimsonkitsune333

Disclaimer: I do not hold any owner ship over D gray man or Harry Potter

/////

"As soon as you have finished putting the ingredients to your potion, I want you to let it simmer for ten minutes. Then I want you to bottle a portion of it into the flask sitting beside your desk. If your flask explodes, or is deformed in anyway by the potion, or you cannot even put your potion into a flask, you will receive an automatic zero." Snape's voice drawled as he swept from cauldron to cauldron inside the dark potions class.

Komui had decided that it would be easier to check for Akuma if they were moving through different parts of the castle. In other words Allen, Kanda and Lenalee had now been assigned to a number of the classes Hogwarts had to offer.

Right now they were in Potions. The class was interesting, to say the least and easy too. Just make the potion by following the recipe on the board. By the end of the class Allen and Lavi had created the directed potion, the drought of living dead. Although Lavi's ability to take just one glance at the board once and be able to remember every single ingredient, may have helped. Just a bit…

"You think we should give the Earl some of this stuff?" Lavi asked swirling the light blue liquid inside the flask as he held it to the dim lights admiring its color.

"That would solve a lot of our problems. Just slip to him and the Noahs, putting them into a sleep so deep they seem dead. But wouldn't that be cheating? It seems far too easy." Allen asked.

Lavi laughed and that quickly drew everyone's attention to their corner of the room. But Lavi ignored them. "One; if there are no rules against it, can it truly be called cheating? Two; when on earth did you develop a problem with cheating?" He said, as they placed the flask onto Professor Snape's desk smirking at the look of their class mates faces as they left the class five minutes early.

Together they walked up and down the nearly never-ending stairways and corridors that made up the complex structure of Hogwarts School. The building was huge, more than seven stories, with far more towers than anyone was able to count. Not to mentions grounds that stretched farther than it was possible to see even from the astronomy tower. Even if the exorcists managed to travel across the entire school it would be impossible to catch all of the Akuma hidden here.

There had been a few level ones and twos here and there, nothing extreme however. It was probably just a natural amount or at the very least a warning for the future. Might as well get rid of it as quickly as possible though. That's why they had asked Hagrid to take Lavi and Allen out into the forbidden forest tonight, to see if there was anything was hiding in the woods.

But for now they would have to live through the classes, and from the stories they had heard about the History of Magic class, that may not be a possibility.

A few minutes later, Kanda and Lenalee caught up to them, soon to be followed by Harry and Hermione. Apparently, (although Allen had learned very little about this), Ron was refusing to even come within shouting distance of Harry. According to Hermione, the red haired teen was jealous of Harry. This, Allen personally didn't understand, noting the fact Harry would probably give his right arm to be out of the Triwizard tournament.

"How on Earth did you manage to make such a perfect Drought of Living Death?" Hermione asked, awe in her voice. "It was such a perfect shade of blue, it made mine look so gray, I hope Professor Snape doesn't dock marks because of it... Oh there's such a chance that he will." Her voice had such a deep undertone of panic that Allen and Lavi were instantly surprised by the pale look on her face and the way she gnawed on her bottom lip

.

"Is she always like this?" Lavi asked Harry under his breath as Allen tried to calm Hermione down.

"Yes, but trust me, her worrying about her grades is nothing compared to what happens when she gets what she considered a poor one. About two days before you arrived Ron's" Harry's voice paused in his story as his voice tightened around the name of his ex-best friend. "Twin brothers, Fred and George stole one of her transfiguration papers marking her A+ down to a B-. I swear she went into a panic attack." he said with a shudder shaking his head in dismay.

The mood was light; at least it was until the rest of the Gryffindors approached the room. It had appeared that Ron had overheard Lavi's and Harry's conversation. It was painfully obvious to Lavi that Ron wanted to add something to this conversation, like he normally would have if he and Harry were friends. Lavi was surprised that Harry hadn't noticed this, because if he had this fight would be over pretty quick. Oh well, not everybody could be as perceptive as he. The black haired boy's face soured immensely as he glared at Ron.

"What do you want?" Harry hissed out, his temper flaring at the indifferent sneer on Ron's face as Harry pushed open the heavy oak door that lead to the History of Magic room.

"Anyway back to Hermione's overly forgotten question," Lavi said, trying and succeeding to return their conversation back to a cheery path. "I have a photographic memory, all I had to do in potions was look at the board and I could easily remember every ingredient and instruction. After that, the process is something very similar to cooking. This of course is a special talent of Allen's, as you could have guessed by the way his stomach grumbles."

"Lucky you! I don't think my potion was good enough to put even a sloth to sleep!. It was so thick I could barely get it into the flask." Harry groaned, knowing that he was pretty much guaranteed a zero for yet another potions assignment.

But Lavi just laughed. "Don't worry, Harry if there's anyone you want to put asleep you just have to talk to us" he said grinning. Harry and Hermione whipped around to look Lavi in the face as the redhead beamed impishly.

"You mean you took some of the potion?" Harry asked, awe in his voice but Hermione looked horrified.

"We're not allowed to take the potions out of class" she hissed dangerously "Besides there is no way that you managed to sneak any of it past Professor Snape. There isn't a student here brave enough to try. They always get caught. And nobody wants a detention with him anyway."

"Yeah, well, Snape hasn't met Allen" Lavi said cheerily as Allen pulled a flask of light blue potion out from his sleeve. The very same potion they had been brewing earlier. "I doubt that Snape could ever catch him."

"How on earth did you do that!" Harry said his eyes wide.

Allen smiled sheepishly.

"Why did you do that" Hermione hissed her voice so dark that Allen took a step back before Lavi came to his rescue.

"Don't go blaming the bean sprout Hermione. He may not look like it, with his good posture and all, but he tends to have very little backbone when it comes to this sort of stuff. All you need is a good sense of logic and you can get him to do a lot of things. As long as it doesn't involve hurting someone he likes. And of course I know him inside and out so finding the right leverage is easy."

Allen rolled his eyes as he pushed the flask into his pocket. "I'm going to pretend like I didn't hear that." he huffed, walking into the room. But before he managed to get the heavy door fully open, he stopped wincing slightly.

"What's wrong Allen?" Lenalee asked worriedly, quickly noticing the sweat that had started to spread across Allen's face and the tightness of his features.

"I really don't think I should have let Fred and George convince me to eat those candies." Allen groaned miserably clutching his hand to his stomach. "My stomach feels like it's trying to leave my body."

Harry to laughed. "Word of advice, don't eat anything offered to you by the twins and don't worry Allen, all you need is a quick nap and you'll be fine. Lucky for you this is History of Magic the one class that you can get away with sleeping in," Harry said, finishing opening the door as he walked through it, Hermione a few steps behind.

They made it about half way into the room when Hermione stopped dead, grabbing on to Harry's sleeve to make sure he also came to a stop. "Who is that?" she whispered into his ear causing Harry to turn his head to follow her gaze to the front of the room.

Standing in front of the blackboard was a tall, thin middle aged man. He had short brown hair and pasty white skin. His deep hazel eyes where hidden by an old fashioned pair of horn rimmed glasses. With a deep rather monotone voice he surveyed the class a smile on his face.

"Welcome fourth years, If you would all take your seats. My name is Professor Manson and I will be taking over this class for the afternoon." he said calmly. Everyone slowly made their ways to their seats, not so much out of respect but curiosity.

"I take it that's not your normal teacher?" Lenalee asked as they all walked to the back of the class.

"No, normally we have Professor Binns, a teacher so loyal to his job that he didn't even take a day off when he died. He's a ghost you see and I don't think he has taken a day off since he was hired so this is beyond weird." Hermione whispered under her breath as she and Harry took seats at the desks designated to them and Allen, Lavi, Lenalee and Kanda sat down against the back wall.

"Now as you can plainly see, Professor Binns is not here to teach you lot today. After a lot of pressuring from your headmaster, Professor Binns has decided to take this, his 300th death day off." Professor Manson said walking in front of the desk. Turning around he reached towards the only sheet of paper on the desk, giving it a quick scan through. "So you have been doing Goblin wars if I am not mistaken, well I hope you don't mind if we deviate from that a bit because I know little to nothing on the subject. No today I would like you to flip to page 540 of your text book, and would somebody like to read the title of the chapter?"

The rustle of pages being riffled through filled the air. Hermione's voice soon broke through the silence as she read the heading aloud.

"1900s: Exorcists~ Gods Murders." She said in a crisp clear voice.

Allen's head perked up almost immediately as he caught the eyes of his team mates. Kanda looked oblivious to the conversion. But Lenalee's face had paled slightly, her green eyes wide, and Lavi was mouthing the words 'Oh Crap' in a never ending pattern.

"Very good my dear, five points to Gryffindor" Professor Manson said happily looking down to the text book in front of him.

"Now _we don't know a lot about Exorcists as they nearly always kept to the shadows. But what we do know is that Exorcists were an organization formed towards the end of the 19__th__ century. They lived under the __impression__ that they here messengers from god, those sent to cleanse the earth of all evils. Even though, it later became a general census in the wizarding world that they were closer to the Devil's children than anything else."_

He read from the text book, his voice taking on that dreary note that was the true reason History was the most unpopular of subjects.

"_They were a scourge upon society. Under the curtain of god they swept the world killing large numbers of Muggles. The true problems started however with the death of esteemed witch Clestera. She was found lying dead in the middle of the street by a local wizard. Apparently her body vanished before his very eyes. and that's when he caught sight of the exorcist. Dressed all in black the man ranted on about their being an Akuma, or Demon inside of Clestera._

"_Three Aurour units were called in to take down the Exorcist and they almost had him, before he rounded a corner and disappeared._

Now that the exorcists were out in the open, more of these mysterious deaths were pinned onto their black jackets. We were ready to call war upon these murderers of God, but we could never find them"

The lecture droned on and was more than likely to last for the entire class. By this point the only person left listening was Hermione, loyally taking notes down on a long piece of parchment in front of her. Something about this lecture was tweaking at her memory, as if it was something that she should know.

"_Each Exorcist had a weapon equipped to them. Each one was unique and easily could out match even a wand made from elder. No wizard to this date has ever been able to understand the creation of these weapons or why they were so strong. The best explanation we have is that of an alternative magick of sorts, one far different then the type we as wizards can control. Almost similar to that of Goblins, the ability to reinforce inanimate objects with spells_. _From what little information we have gathered from the exorcists they refer to this magic as Innocence."_

Even as Hermione copied this down onto her notes her eyes grew wide. "Alternative Magick?!" she breathed as she double underlined the word on the parchment. Didn't the Rose Cross students specialize in Alternative Magicks? That's what Lavi said when they had first met, and apparently he was quite correct in his definition. Was there a connection between the two? The Cross they wore on their chests was very religious looking without a doubt. But....

Hermione looked over her shoulder at the Exorcists sitting in the back corner. Out of the four of them only Kanda was awake, staring out the window with a bored expression. Lenalee sat between Lavi and Allen as each boy rested a head on her shoulder. Her own head was resting light on top of Allen's in such a way that half of his face was put into shadow.

Shaking her head Hermione returned her attention to the front of the class. 'It's probably just a coincidence.' she thought to herself 'There is no way that they could be a part of an organization that does such horrible things'. But even as she thought those comforting words a small nagging sensation crept into her brain.

Hadn't coincidences usually turned out to be wrong in the past? Like the fact that Ginny was never present during any of the reveals of the Chamber of Secrets attacks. Or that knocking over Quirrel during Harry's first Quidditch match had stopped the hexing of Harry's broom just as effectively as lighting Professor Snape's robe on fire had? But still that doesn't mean that there was no such thing as a coincidence right?

Sneaking one more glance behind her, Hermione was ready to admit that there was no connection between the sadistic Exorcists of past and the teens sitting behind her. But maybe keeping an eye on them, just to be on the safe side, wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

A large bell sang its shrill song a few minutes later, signaling the end of classes for the day. The loud noise echoed through the small History of Magic room, easily waking up every person in the room. Well everyone except for Allen, who blissfully slept on.

With a large smile on his face, Lavi told Harry and Hermione that they would see them in the morning. They would just be returning to the Ark anyway so there was no point in denying the Gryffindors their supper.

It took a couple seconds but Harry and Hermione finally agreed. They bid the Rose Cross students a goodnight and walked through the door chatting animatedly.

The moment they had left the room, Allen's soft voice echoed in Lenalee's ear. "Is the Room empty?" He whispered gently. Lenalee nodded her head grimly.

Leaning forward Allen unburied his head from Lenalee's shoulder. The moment he had come in range of the history of Magic class his cursed eye had activated signaling the presence of an Akuma. The large gear like device had tied to appear, but Allen had been able to suppress it. The pain of doing so was all most unbearable however. He barely was able to sit down before the pain overwhelmed him and he had to activate the eye. Lucky enough for him though, he was able to hide his head before it activated and nobody noticed the soft whirring noise that the eye produced when activated.

It was obvious that this new teacher was an Akuma. It was probably waiting until classes where over until it would attack later that night. It felt like a lower level Akuma, but it was smart enough not to raise suspicion by attacking an entire class full of students. Most likely it was a level two, easy work for an Exorcist.

It was the subtly that was going to be an issue. They couldn't be seen in a fight with an akuma lest they be discovered. That's why they had settled on letting Kanda have the honors. Mugan attracted the less attention and was the easiest to activate.

Professor Manson reentered the class room a few minutes later (having left to his office a few minutes previous) muttering something under his breath that none of them could understand. It didn't matter however.

Lenalee walked forward, asking Professor Manson about the history of Exorcists. A painful grimace passed over the face of the Akuma as he turned to talk to the girl. Allen stood slightly off to the side, watching the Akuma intently. It was defiantly a level two and its lack of control was clearly evident.

The Akuma was licking its lips as Lenalee moved closer to it. It wanted so desperately to attack the girl, there was no one there but a few other students. And if they all died no one would notice. But he had specific orders to not attack until the sun had gone down. The human smelt so good. The beautifully sweet smell burned through his nose. It ran through his body like the strongest of drugs filling him with indescribable ecstasy...

His resolve was breaking...

It would only take a few seconds to kill them all...

Who would know?

As Professor Manson thought through its dilemma Kanda crept quietly up behind him. Waiting until Lenalee started to talk again, Kanda quietly activated Mugan. The thin blade shone for a second, but the Akuma didn't even notice. In fact he wasn't even aware of Kanda's presence until his sword swept cleanly through the ribs of the Akuma causing the poor soul to disappear into the air like the wind.

"That was easy" Kanda growled darkly as he re sheathed Mugan."Not even worth having to stay awake during that hour just to keep watch for Bean sprout"

"Be nice Kanda. You know that it was necessary that neither the students nor the Akuma saw Allen's eye. It would have caused panic" Lenalee said crossing her arms as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened."

"What would have caused panic?"

/////


	7. Chapter 7

Looks at the review counter...Wow 20 reviews for chapter 6... THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! That really made my day. YAY! Maybe I should lay of the coffee...

Disclaimer: I don't own D gray man or Harry Potter. Trust me you would know if I did.

Special thanks to CrimsonKitsune333 for Beta-ing for me.

/////

"What would have caused panic?"

The voice rang through the room like a bell, echoing of all of the walls in the History of Magic room even though it wasn't that loud. Allen, Kanda, Lavi and Lenalee all paled as they caught each other's eyes. In one motion they all turned to the front of the room, afraid to meet the eye of the person standing in the doorway.

Ronald Weasly had forgotten his History of Magic textbook on his desk. Such a careless mistake was not too uncommon for a teen that had just woken up from an afternoon nap. In fact, Ron tended to forget his book there, at least once a week. So as per usual he had to walk back to his class to gather the book off his desk, and sprint to his next class to avoid being late.

By the time Ron had arrived to the supposedly empty class however he heard hushed voices coming from the room. Pushing open the door, he peered inside to see the ever-mysterious Rose Cross students saying something about panic.

Lavi was the first to recover from the start Ron's presence had given the exorcists. Quickly schooling his features to that of someone who had just finished laughing, he fabricated the best lie he could come up with. "We were just thinking that if we ever where to calculate who much food Allen was to eat in a week that the world would quite probably panic."

It was a bad lie. Lavi knew it. Lenalee knew it. Allen knew it. Kanda would be the first to make some rude comment about it. And judging by the expression on Ron's face it was obvious that he wasn't going to swallow this lie like he had the others.

"Alright than, if you say so" Ron said a fake grin plastered to his face as he took the misplaced textbook of the desk. "I guess I will talk to you later than." He said awkwardly the air between himself and the Rise Cross students becoming noticeably heavy.

"Defiantly!" Lenalee said with a cheery wave as she grabbed onto both Kanda and Lavi's arm, pulling them towards the door. Kanda's entire body stiffened at the physical contact, obviously uncomfortable. Ron tried to fight down a snicker at this. The look on Kanda's face was too funny for words. Although judging from the expression on the taller man's face he would probably run Ron through with the knife around his waist if Ron were ever brave enough to say anything.

Wait....

Ron's eyes bugged slightly as he stared at the thin blade, which hung at Kanda's hip. If he remembered what his dad had told him about muggle weapons (The one part of his muggle lectures that were even slightly interesting.) The muggles called it a... towrd? Or was it a sword? Not that it even mattered, because what purpose did Kanda even have carrying one in the first place? There was no way that their Head master allowed his student to carry a sharp object such as that.

Besides, why would a wizard need a muggle weapon for in the first place? Wouldn't magic be far more useful in a dangerous situation than jabbing someone with a sharpened piece of metal? To Ron it made no sense whatsoever. Hermione probably knew the answer however. Too bad for the last couple of days, she had been spending nearly every waking moment with Harry, and with the first task coming up tomorrow there would be no chance to talk to her at all.

Unless of course he actually got enough courage to come within 10 feet of Harry and actually talk with him. That would make things far easier, in more ways than one.

'Fat chance' Ron thought grimly as he walked through the door. The Rose Cross students had disappeared without his notice, as well as any thoughts of the mysterious sword. No, right now all of Ron's thoughts were riveted with his best... ex best friend.

Reaching into his pocket Ron gripped the 'Support Cedric Diggory' badge that rested like a lead weight there, ever sense Harry had thrown it at his head the night before. He knew he was being ridiculous. That it was horribly childish to treat his best friend like this. His mother would hit him so hard with her spoon if she ever found out. Especially because deep down he knew that Harry hadn't entered his name into the Goblet of Fire. That wasn't Harry's style. He hated the limelight, always had.

'Maybe I should apologize...' Ron though dully, as he slumped into the deep red armchair next to the fire in Gryffindor Tower. He hadn't even noticed the walk up to the common room, or where he sat. All he really noticed now was a haggard looking Harry walk through the common room and climb up the steps to the dormitory without a second glance. Ron sighed as he faced back to the fire. The paper sitting on the side table beside him caught his attention. Reaching over Ron grabbed it, looking at the headline that blared at him in bright vibrant colors.

The article turned out to be one of the very thorns in his and Harry's relationship. The title said it was about the Triwizard Champions. And yet it was entirely about Harry, who was once again in the limelight. It made Ron angry beyond reason that Harry had sold out some attention seeking version of his story for the publicity it would get. And yet when Ron looked closer at the offending article, he saw the author, and immediately felt guilty.

"Rita Skeeter" Ron read with a groan. His father had always told him how that Skeeter woman could make the most inarticulate noises into full longwinded stories. If you add in that with Harry's habit of making such inarticulate noises when he was flustered, you get an article like this; absolute fiction.

Enough was enough. Tomorrow after the task, Ron was going to make amends for what he had said, whether Harry wanted to hear it or not.

///////

The mood was tense as Lavi, Kanda, Lenalee and Allen all filled into Komui's office later that evening.

"Do you think he suspects anything?" Komui asked concern obvious in his voice as he surveyed the exorcists in front of him.

Allen shook his head slightly, "I think he suspects something is up, but I am sure he has no idea what." he said thoughtfully. "My only worry is that he will start talking to his friend Hermione Granger. She seems curious and had to be the only person paying attention during the exorcist lecture. She could easily put two and two together."

Komui nodded in agreement. "I doubt that could be helped. Just make sure to be on their good sides…That way, should something happen, hopefully they would have an incentive to keep it to themselves."

"Wouldn't that be nice? Although we wouldn't be in this mess if genius over here had chosen a different time to screw up."

"Everyone is entitled to a mistake and that was mine. So sue me Yuu-chan" Lavi's face turned into an expression of false anger as he glared at Kanda, a smirk toying at his lips. Kanda's frown froze as the perfect line of his mouth hardened in anger.

Allen rolled his eyes slightly as he pushed Lavi towards the door knowing that with Kanda in already pissed, calling him Yuu-chan was a suicide attempt in the making.

"Come on Lavi, we have to meet Hagrid, remember? I personally do not want to have to go into that forest by myself because you died with a sword in your gut."

Lavi smiled as he turned his attention back to Allen, his smirk growing even more than before. "True enough Allen. I'm sure that Komui would dig me up and kill me again if you got lost in those woods and Lenalee had to go in after you," he said with a laugh.

Allen shook his head as he went from pushing Lavi out the door to Lavi pulling him out the door by his wrist. This could be a very long night.

The night air was cold, and the forest pitch black as Lavi and Allen stood beside the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid. Since their first night at Hogwarts, Allen had noted the number of Akuma that had gathered in the sinisterly named "Forbidden forest." Tonight they were going to go check it out, although Dumbledore had advised them to allow Hagrid to show them the way into the forest. Not necessarily follow the entire way; just enough to make sure that someone at least knew where the duo had been last in case something went wrong.

"So what business do yah have in the Forest?" Hagrid's gruff voice broke through the silence causing Allen to jump slightly at the sudden noise. "Or is that need to know?"

"Afraid so Hagrid." Allen said, even though his voice sounded slightly dazed as he stared at the immense forest in front of him. "Although I honestly wish that we didn't have to go in there."

"Oh... is our little bean sprout afraid that some werewolf is going to gobble him up?"

"Shut up Lavi"

Hagrid laughed, a large booming noise that shook Allen's bones slightly. "You don't have to worry about anything like that in there, Allen. At least not tonight."

"What do you mean Hagrid?"

"Well, let's just say that the Headmaster has something a lot meaner caged in there at the moment than anything in these woods,"

Allen's eyes grew wide s he stared once again at the impenetrable looking woods in front of him. "You are sure when you say caged right?"

"As sure as I could be."

Allen sighed deeply, squaring his shoulders as he looked at the red head beside him. Lavi, even through his entire bravo, was looking slightly pale as his brilliantly green eye swiveled from side to side. "You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Lavi said darkly.

The mismatched trio swiftly made their way into the wood. As soon as they were fully inside the protective shelter of the trees, the moonlight seemed to cut out on them and they were plunged into darkness. Hagrid stopped for a second as he bent to light the two lanterns he had been carrying earlier. Passing one of them to Lavi, Hagrid once again walked down the forest path.

An eerie silence had fallen upon Hagrid, Lavi and Allen. Nobody talked and the only noise that could be heard was the rustling for the trees from the non-existent wind. The Forbidden Forest was truly a terrifying place, one that Allen was certain that he wanted out of as soon as possible. Although, Hagrid's large presence beside them was a cause for some comfort. The huge man seemed to know his way around the forest, leading them through the almost pitch black forest with a flawless accuracy.

All too soon however, Hagrid stopped at a fork in the path. "And this is where I am going have to leave yah on yer own." He said, turning on the spot to meet the eyes of the two teens in front of him. "Are yah sure you'll be alright?"

Lavi nodded dully as he allowed his glance to stare down the path they were to follow. Allen's nod was less immediate. Even as Lavi supported his nod with his voice thanking Hagrid for his help Allen found himself hesitant to do so, worried that his voice would crack in his fear.

Allen could only watch as he was dragged down the path away from their guide pushed into the deeper, darker parts of the forest.

"Honestly Allen, you can take on an entire army of Akuma without batting an eyelash, but you can't even go into a forest without going all chicken on me?" Lavi said with a broad grin on his face. "You really pick strange times to be a wimp, Allen."

Allen growled as he whacked Lavi over the head. "Whatever Lavi, you're just as scared as I am, just admit it. This place is beyond creepy."

"I'm a _guy_ Allen; the chances of me showing my fear are slim to none."

"So what does that make me? A girl?"

"Well..."

Allen whipped around, his face bright red as he glared at his friend. "What is that supposed to mean?" He growled out, his fear forgotten in his anger.

Lavi shrugged his shoulders slightly, a soft smirk playing about his features. "I'm just saying... Besides, with a couple of changes you would make a pretty girl. You already have the face for..."

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Lavi!" Allen said. His anger was forgotten however as his left eye suddenly whirred into life.

The mood changed immediately as Lavi's face became serious. He reached down to where his Hammer was. He activated his innocence and the Hammer grew to a respectable size. "How many?" he asked, hefting the Hammer experimentally.

Allen looked from side to side as soon as the Crown Clown was activated. "It feels like 20; no make that closer to 30. None of them are stronger than a level 2 however."

"Childs play," Lavi smiled as the swarm of Akuma flew towards them in a large mass, the stronger ones chattering excitedly as they saw the exorcists before them. "We'll be done in 10 seconds flat!" he said as he swung his hammer over his shoulder before bringing it down onto the nearest level two's head.

"At least try to take this semi-seriously Lavi." Allen groaned, running through the cloud of Akuma. A few seconds later a cross sprouted on a large number of them, and the Akuma disappeared into the night sky.

"Why?"

"Because you're acting like a little kid!"

Lavi's laugh echoed through the woods, as he ordered his Hammer to grow to an impossibly large size, easily overshadowing the large amount of Akuma gathered beneath it. They stared up at the Hammer, which hung perilously close to their heads. Lavi slowly changed his grip on the handle of the hammer, allowing it to slowly fall to the ground. "You know Allen, Panda says pretty much the same thing nearly 24/7"

Allen winced slightly as the Hammer made a sickening crunch, as it collided with the earth, Lavi used its weight instead of momentum to destroy the Akuma. "I wonder why," he muttered sarcastically.

"You know I wonder that too, but every time I ask Panda, he just kicks me"

Allen rolled his eyes, not bothering to dignify Lavi's comment with a response. Looking around, he noticed that the Akuma had all been defeated and they were once again standing in the middle of the Forbidden forest. "Well, at least that's over." he breathed softly, watching as his breath formed a cloud in the freezing night air.

"Defiantly," Lavi agreed, "Now come on, I want to check something," he said, before walking back down the path they had previously been following.

"What?" Allen asked as Lavi continued to walk down the path, his head shifting from side to side as if looking for something. "Lavi, where are we going?"

Lavi shrugged softly as he slowly came to a stop in front of the fork in the path that they had separated from Hagrid just an hour ago. "Hagrid seemed pretty excited about whatever was done here right? Well I want to know what it was that got him so interested."

"Why does this seem like an absolutely idiotic idea?"

"Don't ask me, bean sprout, you're the trouble magnet here, not me."

They continued down the path, following the narrow road further and further into the forest. If it had been creepy before, that was nothing compared to the woods now. Even with the lantern that dangled from Lavi's hand, the path beneath their feet was practically invisible.

"Why would anyone put anything here!" Allen complained as he stumbled over a root that protruded from the path floor. Slowly, the roots on the floor slowly thickened, until the boys were standing in the middle of a very thick-looking patch of undergrowth.

Crouching down onto his knees, Lavi kneeled, his hands separating the thick bush. "Shut up," he hissed, before crawling through the bush. Shaking his head in exasperation, Allen too went down onto his knees following the trail that Lavi had made. Of course however, with his ever-prominent luck, the undergrowth turned out to be made of some sort of thorny plant that he didn't recognize. Even so, it quickly pushed through the thin fabric of his uniform pants, stabbing into his legs. 'Whatever was so interesting down here,' Allen thought miserably 'had better be worth it.'

Eventually the bush started to thin out into a clearing. Crawling forward, Allen moved towards where Lavi was squatting at the edge of the plants. The redhead's eye was nearly popping out of his skull as he stared through the hole he had made in the undergrowth.

"What are you staring at?" Allen asked preparing to make his own peep hole in the bush, until a large growling noise made him fall over in shock. "Whaa....?" he gasped dumbly before quickly ripping a hole in the plants. What he saw drew the breath from his lungs.

Dragons. Six of them. All huge and angry looking.

"Shit!" Lavi swore under his breath, staring at the large beasts before him. "See I told you this would be worth it. Two bucks says they're for the Triwizard"

"No kidding. You know I seriously thought it would be something far more difficult however."

Lavi chuckled quietly as he watched one of the dragons. A large black one with nasty looking spikes covering its body belched a fifty foot stream of fire into the air. "I guess you're right, they don't have much on a level four do they? But if you can't use your innocence, wouldn't that make things a little difficult?"

"No not really. Besides I was just going to use the Arc. Easy, I have the best plan ever for subduing it"

"Allen, not that I don't support the idea, but sending a fully grown dragon to Leverrier would not be the best idea in the whole world, don't you think?"

"I guess your right... oh well onto plan b than" Allen said with a sigh, his shoulders heaving slightly. "

"Oh really" Lavi inquired, raising his eyebrow, obviously curious. "And what would that be?"

"Surprise."

"Surprise, right... you have no idea what plan b is, do you?"

"Not a clue."

A knowing smirk formed across Lavi's face as they quietly crept back through the undergrowth. Back through the forest and to the glowing diamonds that glinted softly in the night air.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey, free time. I remember that. It's where I get to sit down and do what I want to do instead of work and university... right? Or have I forgotten the definition? Its been so long since I've had free time maybe I have forgotten? That is a possibility...

I love summer!

/

The sound of pounding feet echoed on the hard stone floor, followed by the noise of harsh panting. Sweat rolled down Allen's cheek as he ran, faster and faster down the narrow hallways. He knew that he couldn't stop, not even for a second.

Allen stumbled as he ran, the sudden change in his balance that caused the stitch in his side to be thrown into more noticeable of existence. The sharp stabbing pain that spread up his spine with fiery precision caused a hitch in his already ready breathing.

Taking in another gasping air of breath, Allen pushed his worn body to go faster. He had been running for almost an hour now. His muscles felt like lead, and his jaw filled with an odd pins and needles sensation that was quickly growing well past uncomfortable.

Almost against his will, Allen felt his body starting to give out. Legs that had been so far over worked, started to stop, and the side of heaving chest rested against the dark stone wall. Even the extra in-human boost Allen's parasitic innocence added to his strength had been worn out.

Resting his head against the cool stone, Allen fought to regain his breath. Down the hall he could hear the footsteps of his pursuers coming closer. It had gotten to the point where he could hear them calling his name.

"_Allen..._

"_Allen..."_

Bitting his lip, Allen once again pushed himself up off the ground, and with a groan of exhaustion pushed himself back into a standing position and started down the hall again. He needed to find a place to hide, as his body would no longer support running for much longer. Even now, as Allen once again started running, he could feel the muscles start to shake.

"_Please wait Mr. Exorcist..."_

Allen throw out an arm to catch himself as he turned another corner. He had leaned into the turn far to much due to his exhaustion, and stumbled on the turn. Only the hand he had pushed off the cold, black brick kept Allen upright.

He had to find a place to hide, and he needed to find it soon.

"_We just want to talk..."_

A long row of door's flashed across Allen's vision. The entire hallway was filled with doors that made up the sleeping quarters of the exorcists. A small sigh of relief slipped past Allen's lips as the familiar sight registered in his brain.

He continued running even as he passed the door with his own name carved into it. Far to obvious if he was to hide there. The people chasing him knew the black order inside and out, every single nook and cranny. Allen had already been pushed past the kitchen, something that had his stomach screaming at him as loud as every other part of his aching, tired body. And to have hidden in the library would be walking right into their thickest point.

So Allen's feet had brought him here, the residential portion of the exorcist's base. Both Lenalee's and Lavi's room were out of the question however. A far to obvious place to look for Allen.

He was running out of options pretty quick here. And no matter how fit Allen was, no matter how fast, the... the... things chasing him where desperate. They could keep up this pace for hours more, something Allen just couldn't do.

That left only one option.

The colour left Allen's face as that final thought finally connect through into his mind. That honestly couldn't be his last resort. It just couldn't be, if there was anyone watching over the exorcists of the black order, than it couldn't be his last resort.

It was however. The narrow hallway that Allen had been following so religiously came to a rather definite end after this rather solid door. Allen raised a shaking hand to the small brass doorknob and hesitated on the spot. The people chasing him couldn't be that dangerous... at least Allen had a chance of being saved if he fought back. Something he wouldn't get if this room contained its original occupant.

"_Mister Exorcist, won't you please try it?"_

Scratch all previous statements, nothing could be worst than the fate he would receive by giving himself up to these people. With that thought in mind, Allen ripped open the door and pulled himself inside the room.

The air released itself from Allen's lungs in a sudden rush and he collapsed against the backside of Kanda's door. The room was pitch black, and thankfully empty. Kanda would have killed him if he had been here. That or thrown him back out to the science department, a fate far worse than death in Allen's opinion.

The science department had been hounding on him since the moment Allen had woken up that morning. It was the day of the first task, and Lavi had... 'accidentally' slipped to the science department all the information they had gathered on their midnight excursion the night before. Apparently the Science team had been working through the night, coming up with wild inventions for him to try out that would protect him from the dragon.

A drink to make him fly, a spray to make his clothes 100% fire proof. Pills that would stop his skin so durable that even a dragon bite wouldn't break the surface. Skin lotion to make him invisible.

The list went on and on. In fact the only thing longer than this list was the ever growing register of possible and increasingly disturbing side effects that Allen's imagination kept coming up with. If these inventions could be ingested, or in anyway shape or form come into contact with his skin, Allen was not going to come within five feet of them.

Hint the running.

Allen fought to calm down, to gain control of his breathing. At this rate the science department was going to hear him. Allen clamped his mouth shut as the first set of footsteps pounded by and came to a stop outside Kanda's door. He was afraid that he would hear the rapid sound of his breathing through the door. The only thing Allen had to rely on with this hiding spot was the off chance that the science department figured he was more afraid of Kanda than them.

Under normal circumstances that would be true. But not today.

The last of the footsteps finally turned around and passed the door, and Allen breathed a sigh of relief. He slowly removed his hand from in front of his mouth and relaxed against the door. For the first time in over an hour, Allen allowed himself to relax. Slowly his breathing fell back into a normal rate, and his eyes sipped closed.

So tired, so hungry... At this rate he wasn't going to get a reasonable breakfast in before the first task started. Lavi would never let him live it down if he passed out half way through the task...

Grunting slightly at muscles that still felt like jello, Allen got back to his feet. Maybe there was enough time to try and make it back to Jerry and get an almost full meal before time ran up. But before he had a chance to stand up fully, the door knob rattled.

Allen pushed himself up the door. He had thought that the science department had turned around by now. Unless Kanda was back? Oh God, Kanda was back...

Frantic eyes scanned the room. It was absolutely pitch black, Allen couldn't see anything. That obviously meant there was no window in the room. No escape route besides the door. Allen backed up, trying to find a place to hide. He could use the almost pitch dark to his advantage. Maybe under the bed...

That would work... if he could find the bed.

Stretching his arms out in front of him Allen tried to feel out a head board, or at least anything that could represent a good hiding place. He panicked however as he felt nothing. It was almost as if the room was empty.

The door was starting to open.

Stifling a whimper of panic, Allen stumbled forward, trying to pick up the pace, or at least find a wall to be able to direct himself. A small beam of light entered the room as Allen tried to orientate himself, and a large grin started to conflict with Allen's ever growing sensation of panic. The bed was just to his left, pressed up against the far wall.

Allen surged forward, all caution forgotten in an attempt to hide. He only had a few seconds left before he was found. Oh god, please let it be someone coming in to clean. Who was he kidding? Kanda had made it obvious that no one was to ever, ever enter his room, it had to be Kanda.

He was so dead.

Allen's foot caught on something hard, just two feet from the sanctuary of Kanda's bed. In those last few crucial seconds, He fell face first into into the carpet at the same time the door fully opened.

"Allen?"

Allen's cheek lifted up off the carpet, meeting the concern gaze of Lenalee from the doorframe. "Lenalee!" he gasped, scrambling up to his feet and rushing over to where the black haired exorcist was standing. "I'm so glad to see you!"

Lenalee, blinked at Allen's odd behaviour and cast an eye around at her surroundings. "I was wondering where you were hiding Allen. I have to say this was the last place I would have thought to look for you. I only came here because I was out of places to look."

"And I only came here because I was out of places to hide." Allen said with a grin, pushing his sweaty hair out of his face with is gloved palm. "The science department had me running all over this place."

A single perfectly curved eyebrow rose at this, and Lenalee titled her head in confusion. "Whatever you say Allen." She said, before grabbing onto Allen's wrist and starting to drag him down the hall. "Come on, The task starts in two hours and I know for a fact that most of that time is going to be spent feeding you."

Nodding, Allen quickly fell into step with Lenalee, feeling her shift her grip on his arm to loop hers through it. They walked together in silence, Allen checking down each narrow corner before daring to take any step into the open.

It was a short walk from the living quarters to the kitchen, and the large cafeteria like room was already filled to the brim with people. None of them were wearing the white jacket that marked the science department however, and for that Allen was grateful. At this rate he would be able to get a snack in before the task started.

Allen could see the door to the kitchen, and his stomach announced its pleasure at seeing such a familiar sight in the only way it knew how. So close, he could hear the sounds of clanging pots, and chopping knives. He could smell the delicious flavours of garlic, and meat, and he could almost taste the mouthwatering food that he would soon be filling his mouth with.

A head slowly peaked its way out from underneath Allen's collar, perking up at the thick smells wafting through the morning air. Slowly, Timcampy unwound his tail from Allen's neck and spread his wings to pull himself up into the air, the golden tips smacking Allen's ear.

"There's someone I haven't seen in a while," said Lenalee, her fingers rising up to lightly brush against the edge of Timcampy's tail. The golem skirted forward at the touch and rose higher into the air, circling impatiently above Allen's head.

Allen sighed softly, looking up to the golden ball that hovered above him. "He's been staying in my room a lot lately, and I don't know if it's because Master is gone or if it's because of all the people at Hogwarts. Although, for some reason though he wouldn't leave me alone this morning. Not that I mind but it is kind of odd."

"He's probably worried about you" Lenalee mused "He's pretty in tune to how other's are feeling." and Allen nodded in agreement, watching the golden golem with an odd look in his grey eyes.

"Lenalee?" Allen asked, a soft hesitation in his voice, "Will you watch him for me? I'm worried that he's going to get in the way, and end up as Dragon bait."

Lenalee nodded, but she soon began to bite on her bottom lip slightly, as if she was trying to hold in something that she oh so desperately wanted to say. Even as Allen removed his arm from her's to press his weight onto the door to the kitchen, she stood there in a moment of frozen apprehension before she shifted suddenly, reaching forward to latch onto the wrist that rested on the door. "Allen, please tell me you have a plan."

Allen paused, looking down from his hand to Lenalee's refusing to look his friend in the eye. "Allen, this isn't funny. You need to have a plan for this. I heard the other teachers talking with their students and they have what they're going to do right down to the last millisecond."

"Sorry Lenalee. I have an idea though, does that help? Plans never work out the way their supposed to for me. Don't worry, it'll all work out." Allen said, attempting to reassure Lenalee, waving his free hand in the air in an almost desperate fashion. But to no avail.

"I know Allen, I know you. That's why I want you to promise me that you won't let yourself killed." Lenalee implored, her large eyes becoming huge as they stared into Allen's face. He could hear the fear that echoed like the chime of a bell in Lenalee soft voice, and the delicate hand that gripped his own so tightly shook.

With a soft sigh Allen allowed a gentle smile to touch the edges of his cheeks. His hand wormed its way out of Lenalee's death grip and gently cupped Lenalee's face, whipping away the single crystal tear that had welled up in her eye.

"I promise Lenalee. This is a school remember? They won't let things get out of control. So don't worry. All you have to worry about is making sure that Jerry has a feast for us when I get back and everything will be perfect."

Lenalee giggled, tilting her face into Allen's hand before stepping away. "Alright then" she said, a smile that mirrored Allen's own suddenly appearing. "We should get you fed before the task, can't have you embarrassing The Order... I mean Rose Cross, by becoming to hungry to move, can we?"

/

Cheering was the only thing Allen could hear right now. A single unified tone that could only come from the merger of Hundreds of voices that in this case could only signify one thing. Harry's portion of the task had finally concluded. Now whether that meant that the 14 year old had managed to steal this mysterious Golden egg, or the Dragon had fried him in the attempt, Allen was unsure. The cheering crowd wasn't an help. Harry had become rather unpopular over the last month. Many of his own year mates would have been cheering for the dragon right now.

Allen shivered at the thought, trying to get rid of the vision of Cajun style Potter from his mind. This was supposed to be a safe event. From what he had seen, the Dragons were being kept on a very short tether, long enough to keep steeling the egg a Challenge, but short enough so if one wanted to run they could. Despite being a ferocious, man eating Dragon, there was supposed to be little that could go wrong.

Allen tightened his fist as his stomach started to knot in fear and worry. Were all the people that had left the tent before him alright? Would he be alright? Allen yelped as the perfect model dragon in his hand bit into Allen's palm, showing its displeasure at the rough treatment, forcing Allen to drop the magically animated figurine.

When Mr. Bagman and Mr. Crouch entered the tent a few hours previous, the two men had explained the task, and supplied a velvet bag, daring each of the TriWizard contestants to pull out the contents of the bag. Which in the end had revealed the dragons that Allen had seen earlier, and judging by the extreme lack of surprise from his competitors the ones the others had seen as well. Each dragon model had a little tag around their necks that showed what order they would be going in.

Blood welled up in Allen's palm, and the Exorcist quickly moved his injured hand up to his mouth in an attempt to stem the flow of blood.

The Dragon model glared at Allen as it landed on the off white sheet of the medical cot Allen was currently using as a chair. A small curl of dark smoke erupted from the beast nostrils, and flame red scales rustled restless over each other as it curled up into a cat like ball, the little tag around its neck inscribed with a little five falling down to the blankets.

Allen sighed as he looked up to the thick canvas that surrounded him, feeling closed in all of a sudden. He was the only one left in a tent that had previously held over ten people. Contestants, media, teachers... everyone. Yet he was left here, sitting in the dark which was not a feeling that Allen found he was found of. Nothing like dead silence to increase every single feeling.

Again the canon blasted, signalling that it was Allen's turn to enter the stadium. The force of the explosion ripped through the thick canvas of the tent with the force of a small earthquake. A sudden sharp chill ran up Allen's spine as the tent shook around him, sealing his sentence.

No matter how often Allen told himself that there was nothing to worry about in this task. How often he reassured Lenalee that he would be alright. There was no denying the fact he was most definitely not looking forward to fighting this dragon.

A dragon may have nothing on a level 4 akuma, as Lavi had repeatedly joked, but neither did Allen with out the Crown Clown. An item that Allen had been informed was far to risky to activate with so many prejudiced people around.

There was also that possibility that Lavi was wrong about the strength difference between a level 4 and the dragon. There was nothing more viscous than a mother protecting their young. Maybe a nesting Dragon could hod their own against any Akuma. Besides from what Allen had seen the night before, these dragons were huge.

Allen slowly pushed himself up and off the low cot. It squeaked as his weight left he metal springs, causing Allen to wince at the squeaky noise, and the dragon model to growl.

This was it.

Allen's fingers touched the edges of the canvas door and parted the flap. Almost immediately he was bombarded by a tidal wave of cheers, boos and screams. Taking a deep calming breath, Allen fought to ignore everything that was happening around him. As his mind slowly started to clear and the apprehension disappeared, Allen started to run over and finish the rough plan that was only half formed in his head.

"_Promise me that you won't let yourself killed"_

As strategies went this one kind of failed in terms of helping Allen get his goal, put it would be very useful for slipping out of the bar of survival. Promises to Lenalee almost always to end up that way. However strategies had never really been Allen's strong point, he was far more of a swing your sword and hope it makes contact kind of person. One of the many reasons why when they spared, Kanda almost always came out on top.

This time however, there was no sword, no weapon, and his opponent was going to be a lot meaner than Kanda could ever hope to become. All of which meant Allen needed to think his plan thorough a little more.

Sharp pieces of gravel crunched underneath Allen's boots as he walked further and further into the arena, taking the time to look over everything.

The arena that Allen walked onto was a rock wasteland. Towers of rocks cracked the surface, providing both protection and perch. Where this had all come from, Allen most certainly did not want to think about. When he and Lavi had finished there rounds last night this rocky wilderness had not existed.

The crowd had fallen silent, Allen could feel each and every stare upon his back. Allen tugged off the hood of the floor length black jacket he was wearing over top of his uniform to protect against the bitter november air, letting his white hair fall free of the hood. The sleeves came free next, and the thick material slipped from from Allen's arms and from his body. The cold wind cut into Allen's uniform like a knife, but he knew that tit would be worth it to gain full mobility once more, it would be a hazard when playing with fire.

The jacket was draped over the edge of one of the rock pills. The black material a sharp contrast to the light grey of the rocks. Hopefully he had placed the jacket in a place where it would survive the onslaught of the fight, but still be in a place where Allen would be able to find it.

Shutting his eyes, Allen let the breath he had been holding to release into the air, before analytically surveying the terrain, not allowing himself to be taking in by the awe of his environment. At this time he could only focus on the task at hand: the gold egg.

The centre of the arena was a stack of blush grey eggs. They where nestled in a nest of smaller stones and wood. Each one of the eggs could easily out weight any ostrich egg that had ever existed, and sandwiched between the pile was the golden egg that allen was supposed to be looking for, polished to absolute perfection.

The eggs were contained in the only clear section of the arena. A large opening that meant absolutely no protection. It seemed that the only way to take the eggs would be to make a break for it and pray for the best.

Bracing himself, Allen quickly to one last scan of the area, ears perked up for any sign of the giant fire breathing lizard that was to be his playmate for the next several minutes. The brute seemed absent however, probably watching him from behind one of the rock mountains.

Allen began to walk towards the clearing, his pace quickening with every single step, until he was sprinting. Allen knew he had to be careful with how much speed went into his stride, for his innocence could easily take him past a speed that the wizards would consider normal.

That was something Komui had stressed numerous times. No matter how hard things got, Allen had to appear like a normal human.

The eggs were quickly coming into view, only a few feet left. Allen's eyes darted left, right and above. But there was still no sign of a dragon. This was far to easy...

Stretching out his arm, Allen prepared to dive for the golden egg that was almost in his grasp. He was so close, Allen's finger danced across the smooth surface of the cold metal.

A flash of red caught in the corner of Allen's vision and a guttural growl erupted into the air. The putrid smell of brimstone surrounded Allen, making his stomach churn and his nose burn, the smell only increasing as the seconds wore by. It took a little while for Allen to figure out why the smell existed in the first place.

At the very last possible moment Allen jumped to the hard left, using the momentum from his previous sprint to twist his body towards the ground and on to his wrist. When the blast of scorching flames filled the space where Allen had previously been standing, he pushed his weight up of his hand and shot up into the air above the blast.

The smell of scorched cotton and burnt skin followed Allen's landing however, and he stumbled slightly when he landed, clutching at his burnt wrist. The dragon gave Allen no time to recover however as it released another breath of fire before Allen was steady on the ground.

He dived and rolled, avoiding burst after burst of white hot flames that was shot in his direction. Allen danced further back, his feet jumping over lose rocks as he avoided the flames, until his back collided with the jagged edge of a towering rock. Wasting no time, Allen dove behind the rock pillar, the surface well worn by many a set of claw marks.

For a single second Allen relaxed, letting the pillar support his weight. His breathing came out in harsh, panting gasps as he tried to regain control of his breathing. From behind the rock, Allen could hear the sound of sharp talons racking against the stones, the eerie sound grating on his ears.

Allen looked down at the hand he was currently cradling so carefully to his chest. The uniform sleeve that had survived many an Akuma attack, that was designed to withstand just about everything was completely ruined. The material burnt away to ashes, right down to the metal fastenings. Gingerly, Allen removed the cuff which was all that remained of his glove, gasping when the white material moved to reveal shiny, red blistered skin bordered by oozing yellow white and cracked brown black that no longer looked anything like Allen's pale of skin.

Lenalee was going to kill him... but it couldn't be helped. Allen would just have to be more careful from now on.

Peaking his head around the rock, Allen was given the first eyeful of the full sized version of his dragon model. The one Mr. Bagman had called a Brazilian Fire mane.

The dragon towered above Allen, and even though he had seen the dragons last night in the forest, he was still astonished by the sheer presence of the beast. Composed of a long snake like body, the dragon coiled around the rocks, flame red scales glistening in the light. True to its name, the Brazilian Fire Mane had a crown of orange scales -or feathers, Allen wasn't truly sure- that surrounded her head, jaw and tickled down her chin and her spine.

The dragon prowled forward, walking heavily on thick tree stump like hind legs. Laking definite arms, she rested the tips of her huge wings against the terrain, the hand like structures that seemed far more equipped to be hanging on tree bark than balancing on rocks. The thin membrane that lined the boney structures was a few shade lighter than her body, and Allen could see right through them. Judging by the way the dragon was proportioned, how fine boned she was and by the awkward way she was carrying herself, Allen summarized that the dragon was far more at home in the sky than she was on the ground.

He could use that as an advantage. As long as he could keep her on the ground

The Dragon's head moved to the left, and Allen's breath caught in his throat as he met the tawny gaze of something that held far more intelligence than most people gave credit to. The way she stared down at Allen, as if he was some pathetic grub caused his stomach to knot. Some insignificant urchin who had bitten off far more than they could chew. Almost as if she knew, as well as Allen that with one snap of the huge jaws, he would be no more.

Maybe the best strategy here, would just be to sit for a few minutes. Behind the protection of his shelter and wait until the dragon calmed down and left.

But as flame red coil after coil came and wrapped around the rock Allen was hidden behind in a vice like grip, and lifted the huge stone up into the air, he knew that was not going to be an option.

The dragon growled once more, and a claw tipped wing shot back peddle to avoid being clipped in the ribs, and ducked, almost throwing himself to the ground when the dragon swung around to try and club him with her spiked elbow joint.

Once more the Dragon started to advance, her wings twitching with the need for flight. But with no room to manoeuvre, all the dragon could do was allow her thin body to drag across the earth. Allen dodged behind rocks, never running in a straight line as he moved towards the back end of the huge arena. The Dragon followed every movement, worming her way through the narrow crevices until she came to a lurching stop, the immense chain attached to the thick collar around her neck growing taunt. The Dragon growled as her advancement was hindered, and attempting to swipe at the offending metal ring, to no avail however.

Allen easily avoided the frustrated stream of flames that flared from her nostrils. Again and again she pulled at the chain, and the tick metal groaned under the strain that she was exerting. But she could not get close enough to Allen to be able to take his head off.

Advantage point.

Allen jumped up into the air, and pressed his foot into a small rock ledge that the pillar behind him provided. His knees bent and Allen kicked off, pushing himself higher into the air. It was now or never if he was going to win this task.

The dragon's neck swivelled around as she tried to follow Allen's path. Allen twisted in mid air, high above her head, and landed with a soft thump on the mane like scales just between the Dragon's short neck and her shoulders.

The scales scrapped against the thin material of Allen's pants, ripping at his thighs, and they felt almost as hot as their name sake. The dragon screeched in protest, the sound uncomfortably similar to that of a scream. She started flail madly, heading shaking this way and that in a desperate attempt to dislodge her unwanted rider.

Allen gasped, the air leaving his lungs in one huge whoosh as she whirled around and around. His head head whipped painfully on his neck, rocking around like a bubble head so much so that Allen could hear the bones creak and groan. The Dragon's wings flared, trying to pull herself into the air despite the extra weight. Allen's eyes grew wide as her long body started to head into the air, and desperately he lashed his foot, jamming it into the wing joint.

Despite a muffled roar of pain, the Dragon all but ignored Allen's attempts to keep her on the ground, and she shot into the air. Allen threw himself against her neck, clinging desperately as the world blurred around him, feeling the same lurching in his stomach that came from Lenalee's dark boots.

Higher and higher into the air she flew, soaring to greater heights than Allen found comforting. Until the chain grew taunt and the Dragon could no longer rise. But it was high enough, for when Allen peaked his head of the side of the dragon's neck he could barely see the people sitting in the stands. They looked like brightly coloured ants, far to small to pick up any details.

A burst of flame shot off unexpectedly as the Dragon turned her head. Allen had been far to focused on staying put on the slippery back of his ride and not plummeting to his death, that he was unable to fully fully duck out of the way. The flames singed his hair, burning the edges and made the metal earring that was edged in his ear beyond uncomfortably hot.

Yet Allen held on, clinging desperately to the heavy iron collar. He would only have one shot at this, for this high up, if Allen fell it would be game over.

Slowly the bucking and lurching came to a stand still. Allen could feel the dragon's chest rise and fall rapidly as her lungs struggled to regain the oxygen lost through her fight with the human on her back. This could be the perfect moment.

Taking a deep breath to settled his own breathing, Allen allowed himself to immersed in the memories of the 14th. The soothing, yet eerie piano melody echoed in his ear as the rest of the world disappeared, leaving nothing but the white walls of Noah's Ark.

In his minds eye, Allen envisioned what he wanted to do, what he wanted the music to do for him, what he wanted the 14th to do for him. At the same time, Allen fought to keep his mind clear and separate. Knowing that with a moment's hesitation on his part, could mean the Noah inside of him would take control.

That faceless spectre loomed over Allen as a piece of perfectly polished silver erupted on the wall before him, marring Allen's reflection with the distorted shape of another. That shadowy face mocking Allen as the white haired boy's fingers twitched and started to move in tune to the music. The dull whisper of an intangible but alluring voice starting to merge in with the music. Taunting Allen with what could be, what _he_ could be.

The world lurched once more, snapping the ark from Allen's vision, and thrusting him back into the real world. Allen's eyes became huge as he felt his body dragged forcefully into a vertical position. By the sheer force of air pressure alone.

The Dragon had gone into a dive, tucking her huge wings tight into her lithe body as she thrust herself into a straight line, becoming a living arrow. Just like a hunter going in for the kill, the despicable beast had waited to until Allen had been completely distracted until trying to kill him once more.

These Wizards truly underestimated the intelligence of this dragons, letting mere teenagers fight something that could easily be more cunning than any of them? Or had it been Allen who had underestimated how difficult this tournament would be? Magic must have given everyone a far larger advantage than he had originally thought.

Down, down, faster and faster. Allen could feel himself starting to slip as the ground rushed up to meet them. The collar was becoming to difficult to hold onto, and in desperation he entangled his left hand in the fiery feather like scales around the Dragon's neck.

The Dragon unfurled her wings with an ear shattering snap, jolting her entire body to a stop just several feet from the ground. Before Allen could even begin to comprehend what was happening, he was overwhelmed by vertigo. He flew forward, his hands leaving the safety of the dragon's mane and collar and gripped uselessly at air.

Desperately Allen grabbed up with his injured right hand and grabbed tightly onto the mane that dangled of the side of the Dragon's cheeks and down her chin. The Dragon didn't even react as his entire weight hung of the appendages. More now than ever, Allen felt less like a threat and more like her next meal.

Those brilliantly yellow eyes turned down to look at allen full on. Were the corners of those red scaly lips turning up into a smirk, or was it just Allen's imagination?

Allen's burnt hand began to shake as the damaged flesh was forced, not only to hold onto rough and hot material, but to support all of Allen's weight. Something that it should have been quite unable to do in its current state: second degree burns that bordered on third degree that spread across his wrist, inner arm and the palm of his hand.

The Dragon's scales rubbed against the charred flesh, and the dragon shook her head roughly from side to side, forcing a chocked scream to leave Allen's throat without hesitation or remorse.

Even as the agony died down to a level that Allen could once again control his need to scream, pain still seared unbearably up Allen's arm. He had to fight to remain holding onto those scales that were causing him so much pain.

It wasn't much of a dilemma however: hold on and be in pain, or let go and die. He had promised Lenalee that he would survive, there was no way that Allen was going to let it end here. If a 14 year old could manage, than so could he.

With a grunt, Allen swung his body up, trying to urge his free hand back up to the collar that suddenly seemed a mile away. His fingers were still a good distance from the metal surface of his salvation. So Allen swung his legs up into the air as if he was on a swing, trying to create enough momentum to carry him the rest of the distance. Gritting his teeth at the pain this caused his hand, Allen rocked back and forth until he once again tried to reach for the collar.

His fingers danced across the outside edge, and with one more swing, Allen was able to wrap the tips of his fingers around the collar. The dragon must have realized that this would be the perfect chance to get back at the nuisance that had been bugging her so, and snapped her jaws at the exact second Allen released her chin.

The razor sharp teeth grazed over Allen's shoulders, ripping through the fabric to create shallow scratches along the flesh hidden beneath. They weren't deep, or traumatically painful, for Allen had been to far out of the dragons reach when she had tried to bite him, but the effect was still there. For Allen's back arched as those teeth touched his shoulder, and the brief pain ripped through his flesh.

His fingers slipped off the collar, clawing uselessly at the air as his body flew past the dragon. Then he was falling, the air rushing past him, creating a tunnel of wind that restrained Allen within it's confines as he tried to comprehend what was happening.

Somewhere in the distance Allen could hear Lenalee's scream and Lavi's frantic shout penetrate through the disjointed mass of sensations that surged through Allen's mind and body. Or was he just imagining them as he fell? How high up was he anyway? Allen didn't know, but he was sure that it was high enough to cause some serious, possibly irreversible damage... and only if it didn't kill him.

Allen's head tilted back as his body was tossed about in the wind. He stared blankly up at the dragon, watching in slow motion as those mighty jaws opened once again, and sparks started to flicker around her forked tongue as the fire started to build.

Meaning that if the fall didn't kill him, than the Dragon would be sure to finish the job.

Seconds before Allen could collide with the ground, every single instinct for self preservation suddenly kicked his mind into overdrive. Every single conscious thought was erased and locked away until only two words remained.

"_Crown Clown!"_

You all must love me. The first time I update in... i don't even want to know how long, and its a cliff hanger.

Remember, my beloved readers: killing the Authoress in her sleep means no updates. Just thought I should remind you just incase some CSI worthy ideas are appearing in your heads.

I'll update soon I promise.


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